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Israel’s atrocities in Gaza prompt unprecedented political fallout
By Ben White
Original Published Middle East Monitor
Friday, 08 August 2014 16:58
‘Now with the evidence of new war crimes there for all to see, Israel’s isolation will only increase, and, despite the predictable backlash, Palestine solidarity campaigning will take a significant step forward.’
“Carnage” in Gaza – “the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians”. Not the words of a Palestinian spokesperson but rather French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Australia’s FM Julie Bishop condemned what she called “shocking” and “indefensible” incidents, with “hundreds of innocent people” killed.Just two examples of how Israel’s strongest allies have criticised the conduct of ‘Operation Protective Edge’ in unprecedentedly harsh terms. In the UK specifically, there has been an undeniable sea-change in the way that self-declared ‘friends’ of Israel have drawn a red line – adding their voices of criticism to more vociferous condemnation heard at numerous, large-scale demonstrations.
More on this in a moment. For now let us recap the devastation visited upon the Gaza Strip where, in the words of Human Rights Watch, Israel has killed “very large numbers of civilians” with “advanced weapons”. In the most recent update, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported a death toll of 1,893 Palestinians, including 430 children. In one single F-16 strike on July 30, 19 children were killed. A further 9,805 Palestinians have been wounded, including almost 3,000 children. At least 122 families have lost three or more family members in the same attack, killing a total of 652 civilians in those strikes alone.
Many of the wounded are suffering from serious burns, or face life-long disabilities (physical as well as mental). In a fenced-in, blockaded territory, Israel’s attacks displaced almost 30 percent of the population. Israel has destroyed or severely damaged more than 10,000 housing units – many more have sustained less serious damage.
Shops, mosques, government buildings, all lie in ruins – the power plant is out of action, and 134 factories were destroyed. A low-end estimate cost of the damage is $5 billion. The health sector is in a state of emergency, while Amnesty International yesterday released evidence of the Israeli military conducting “deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals“. Nor were journalists immune: 13 Palestinian media workers were killed during the course of the attack.
The evidence of atrocities is mounting. One of the defining horrors of this attack has been the targeting of family homes – close to 1,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes. Reporting on the issue, the Associated Press said that the Israeli military did not respond to repeated requests “to explain in detail why even one of [the homes] was targeted”.
Earlier on in the operation, Israeli NGO B’Tselem noted how the Israel military itself had “acknowledged” conducting attacks that were “illegally aimed at homes that were not military targets”. A senior officer, commenting on the bombing of a senior al-Qassam Brigades figure’s house, said: “You call it a home, we call it a command centre and a military post for all intents and purposes”.
As Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard put it, the Israeli military’s “combat doctrine…redefines what constitutes a legitimate target for attack” so that it includes “houses belonging to Hamas commanders and operatives” (it should be noted homes have also been hit lacking even this ‘link’).
Another example of Israel’s war crimes – the intense and indiscriminate attack on Rafah on August 1, when the Israeli military killed an estimated 130 Palestinians, mostly civilians, after soldier Hadar Goldin was feared captured. Haaretz referred to “dozens of innocents killed” in a “massive use of force” – another item reported “the demolition of houses with bulldozers and very aggressive artillery, aerial and tank fire“. The Givati brigade responsible is commanded by Ofer Winter, who had told his soldiers prior to the ground invasion they were “engaged in a war to ‘wipe out’ an ‘enemy who defames’ God.”
Then there is the devastation of Shuja’iyya, when IDF officers boasted of “taking off the gloves” and tanks received orders “to open fire at anything that moved”. A brutal attack which, in the words of Israeli analyst Ron Ben-Yishai, was the very “essence of the deterrence” sought by Israel in its battering of Gaza. In Khuza’a, Israeli forces fired on and killed fleeing civilians, with a “furious assault” that left “whole streets flattened” and “its nine mosques…in pieces”. And so it goes on.
A report in Haaretz a week ago said that more than 30,000 artillery shells had landed in Gaza, in addition to the then-4,000 “targets” struck by airstrikes. It is vital to recall, when considering the bigger picture of Israel’s military operations, that the army’s own legal advice strips civilians of their protected status, in what has been described as “a ‘targeted assassination’ of the principles of international law“.
Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for the anticipated legal ramifications of its war crimes – a reasonable expectation given the calls already made by the likes of Amnesty International for an arms embargo, as well as the UN Human Rights Commission inquiry.
According to the Israeli media, for domestic consumption officials describe the damage done to Gaza “as the main deterrent” – but “play down this claim in the international arena”, as they are “aware the destruction will have serious political ramifications”. On July 10, a military source claimed that when “Gaza residents see the great damage to the Strip“, it “will speak for itself”.
The Israeli military has already established a team “in case the army is accused of war crimes” consisting of senior army officials, as well as representatives of the Foreign and Defense Ministries. Their remit also includes “organizing a diplomatic and public relations offensive“.
They will have their work cut out. In recent weeks, Israel’s image has taken a battering in Britain. The public has taken a clear stand on what it thinks of the Gaza attack, while politicians and pundits from both the Right and centre-left have condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians. Palestine has shaped the domestic political agenda in a way perhaps never seen before.
‘Tory war over Gaza‘, ran a front page headline in The Times, in the aftermath of Sayeeda Warsi’s resignation. A self-defined pro-Israel Conservative MP spoke out against the “swift, and terrible, elimination of so many Palestinian lives, homes, hospitals and schools”. Newspapers have focused on the arms trade, as campaigners and senior politicians alike call for an embargo.
From celebrity tweets to Jon Snow’s emotional broadcasts – this summer would appear to be a watershed moment in how Israel is perceived, and treated, in the UK. No wonder that the Israeli embassy has almost begged for help in its embattled propaganda drive, while the country’s defenders issue desperate-sounding “choose which side you are on“-style pleas.
Take a step back from the summer’s bloodshed and remember where things stood in the spring. An intransigent Israeli government was winning few friends abroad, as the US-led peace process died on its feet. Israeli settlements in the West Bank were increasingly the target of mainstream anger and boycotts, as a growing chorus warned that Israeli colonisation policies had made a Palestinian state impossible. BDS campaigns were growing, in trade unions, faith communities, and on campuses.
Israel already stood charged with systematic violations of international law, apartheid, and institutionalised discrimination, even before the barbaric attack on the Gaza Strip. Now with the evidence of new war crimes there for all to see, Israel’s isolation will only increase, and, despite the predictable backlash, Palestine solidarity campaigning will take a significant step forward.
‘Now with the evidence of new war crimes there for all to see, Israel’s isolation will only increase, and, despite the predictable backlash, Palestine solidarity campaigning will take a significant step forward.’
Ben White is a freelance journalist, writer and activist, specialising in Palestine/Israel. He has been visiting the region since 2003 and his articles have been widely published in the likes of The Guardian’s Comment is free, Al Jazeera, Electronic Intifada, New Statesman, Salon, Christian Science Monitor, Middle East International, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and others. He currently works as a writer and researcher for Middle East Monitor and Journal of Palestine Studies.
Latest link to Ben White’s pieces
Why I petition for Gaza
Girl being evacuated from Aqsa-Martyrs Hospital after being hit by Israel tanks, On July 22, 2014, on Gaza, Palestine (photo/Shady Alassar)
Patient being evacuated from Aqsa-Martyrs Hospital after being hit by Israel tanks, On July 22, 2014, on Gaza, Palestine (photo/Shady Alassar)
Patient being evacuated from Aqsa-Martyrs Hospital after being hit by Israel tanks, On July 22, 2014, on Gaza, Palestine (photo/Shady Alassar)
A Patient is helped to an ambulance ready to be evacuated to safety. Aqsa-Martyrs Hospital was hit by Israel tanks, On July 22, 2014, on Gaza, Palestine (photo/Shady Alassar)
A slow genocide have been taken place in Gaza since Israel placed an illegal blockade of the Strip in 2007, not that it has been better for Palestinians before 2007. Since Israel was created in the minds of the Zionist Organization in 1897, Jews gangs were hired by the British elite and they started the campaign of harassing Palestinians preparing the land for the new arrivals of Jews that starting coming sin the 1900’s. Then when physically and officially Israel was installed in Palestine in 1948 the situation has been from bad to worst.
Now, with this latest assault in Gaza, where the most horrific war crimes has been committed against an entire population with as today July 23, 2014, more than 625 person killed and 4000 maimed by aerial and sea bombardment, and tank shells, many , mosques, hospitals and residential building razed to the ground.
Nights are the worst. That is when the bombing escalates. Nowhere is safe. Not a mosque. Not a church. Not a school, or even a hospital. All are potential targets, said Mohammed Omer, from the New York Times
Gaza is an enclave in the Mediterranean Sea with almost 2 millions inhabitants that had been forced to live out of hand outs from UNRAW which it is supported by the International Community Donations.
The illegal commercial and humanitarian siege placed by Israel and enforced in part by Egypt had put Gaza at the verge of collapsing the infrastructure of the civil administration, and impoverished the entire population to the lowest standard of living.
The only electrical plant have been functioning with petrol donated by Arab leaders, as the local government refuses to let Israeli oil to be bought to Gaza. It is a matter of moral and political principles not to support the economy of the entity that stole their land, made them refugees and keep them isolated and oppressed.
The international community needs to step their efforts to end immediately Gaza siege, siege that is causing the worse humanitarian crisis in the 21 century.
Thanks to all the International community of social and peace activists that have supported Gaza throughout the convoys bringing humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza and to all the voices raising awareness on Israel crimes.
Avaaz.org We demand that Intl. Criminal Court & UN charge Benjamin Netanyahu & Israel for War Crimes against Humanity.
We the citizens of the world demand that Benjamin Netanyahu as person and Israel as the apartheid state is put on trial along with all the evidences that prove it to be a country responsible for terrible war crimes against humanity and people of Palestine in general.
Only in the first three weeks of the genocide by Israel, they used over 17 000 tons of rockets and bombs, martyred 1967, from which 1600 were civilians, 371 children, 10000+ civilians injured and over 500 000 people made homeless.
MoveOn Tell @WhiteHouse & @JohnKerry: End Gaza War and Lift Blockade Petition by Abir “Abby” Elzowidi
The Obama Administration and Congress should use all means at their disposal to end the war and lift the economic blockade in Gaza. The U.S., Israel, and Egypt should trade a permanent end to rockets and other attacks from Gaza for a permanent end to Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on Gaza’s economy and on the movement of Palestinians into and out of Gaza.
AVAAZ.ORG GAZA: FULL CEASEFIRE, END THE BLOCKADE
Petition to the UN Security Council, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA:
We urge you to act immediately to ensure a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to protect civilians on all sides, and to address the growing humanitarian crisis. Only through robust international action and oversight can the bloodshed be stopped, the Gaza crossings safely re-opened and real progress made toward a wider peace in 2009.
Causes.com Bring an end to the violence between Israel and Gaza
Innocent people are being traumatized, injured, and killed every day. This must end!
IPetitions Gaza – CeaseFire Now
CEASEFIRE NOW! The escalation in and around the Gaza Strip is causing terrible suffering to people – to men, women, elderly and children, Palestinian as well as Israeli civilians. The military offensive conducted by the Israeli armed forces has so far caused hundreds of Palestinian casualties; majority of them were unarmed civilians.
The siege and economic blockade have reduced most of the Gaza Strip’s population to abject poverty, devastated its economy, and caused the death of critically ill patients, denied access to vital treatment. The Palestinian attacks on Sderot have severely traumatized its population, far beyond the physical casualties caused among them. This is not a conflict between two equal forces. The most powerful army in the Middle East, backed by the world’s single remaining super-power, is daily using tanks, fighter planes, helicopters and gunships against the lightly-armed militias and overcrowded population of a small area whose people have lived under occupation and in poverty long before the present siege. Yet the individuals caught in the fighting are all suffering – on both sides of the fighting, among both peoples. The pain of living in daily fear, of being wounded and mutilated for life, of grieving for the loss of loved ones, is the same pain – whether one’s country be oppressed or oppressor, occupied or occupier, rich or poor, powerful or powerless. The attacks on both sides of the border feed on each other and intensify each other. Palestinians in Gaza, rightly feeling themselves still living under occupation despite the Israeli ‘disengagement’, seek to resist occupation, but when some use launching of rockets against civilians, they manage only to provide an additional justification for tightening the siege on Gaza and the escalation of Israeli violence. The cycle of violence and bloodshed goes on and on, and the threat of an overall invasion and re-conquest of the Gaza Strip is openly and repeatedly made by the Israeli military and political leaders – with the cost estimated at hundreds or thousands of casualties. We, the undersigned – Israelis and Palestinians – do not accept this grim reality as inevitable. There is a clear and obvious alternative to bloody escalation and strangulating siege, an alternative providing hope: an end to the siege of Gaza, and a ceasefire and cessation of all hostilities. The siege of Gaza and the collective punishment of its population are totally unacceptable. It is a medieval form of war which is in utter contradiction to the present norms of human rights and international law – which Israel, as an occupying power, is bound to respect. There should be an immediate end to the siege, unconnected with any other issue, and the Gaza Strip must have free access to the outside world, for the free passage of persons and goods. It has already been clearly seen that the suffering inflicted on Palestinian civilians in Gaza did not and cannot solve the problem of Sderot. The only solution is a complete and mutual ceasefire, an end to all armed attacks by the Israeli occupation on Palestinians, including all shootings by infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft and gunboats, and all targeted killings, armed incursions and arrests across the border, and an end to launching of rockets by Palestinians on Israelis. In addition, this should involve a reopening of the prisoners issue, starting with negotiations on the exchange of Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit with Palestinian prisoners. We regard such a ceasefire as an entirely realistic, achievable and desirable act, which would save lives, alleviate misery and create better conditions for any attempt to achieve peace between the two peoples – while understanding that no long-lasting solution is possible while the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem continue to live under occupation. ——————————– Full text including Hebrew and Arabic translations at http://toibillboard.info
Egypt clossing Gaza Tunnels-Hunting “terrorists” in the Sinai Peninsula
Published on July 07, 2013 by Akashma Online News
Egypt army ‘preparing for Sinai operation’
According to Ma’an News, Egypt’s army is preparing for a large-scale military operation in Sinai, an army official said Sunday, as forces sealed more smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border.
An Egyptian military official told Ma’an the army was preparing for a major operation in Sinai “to clean it up from terrorist and criminal cells.”
The army official said “coordination is ongoing between the Egyptians and the Israelis to bring military vehicles, troops and jets into Sinai to fight terror.” Ma’an News Agency
I am really sad for the situation of Gaza, we know that part of their life line comes from the tunnels, but analyzing Egypt situation, we need to understand their position.
They somehow depend on US military and economical aid, wanted or not, they are on a short leash.
Adding to that the “peace agreement of 1979, Camp David which is another rope hanging on their neck.
President Sadat was the focus of Islamic extremists primarily for his dealings with Israel. Though he had become a national hero in 1973 for springing a surprise attack against Israel in the Sinai Peninsula, the eighth anniversary of which was being celebrated in the parade, his decision to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 had turned him into a pariah in the Arab world. New York Times
You know that Egypt lost control control of the Sinai Peninsula, (supposedly Israel gave back to Egypt, but not really) and unfortunately some of the Bedouins had transformed the Sinai in a porous illegal trade of arms, drugs, and human trafficking to Israel.
We understand that also it is used to bring military equipment to Gaza, and of course all the products blacklisted by Israel but, some radical groups not controlled by the central government of Hamas also make use of the tunnels to bring materials to make rockets, off course they do on their understanding to liberate Palestine, but sometimes that undermine Gaza’s government and ability to reach political agreements.
Of course I m not agreeing with their policies of closing the tunnels before to opening completely the Rafah crossing, and guarantee that Israel opens the other crossing to the West Bank, but Prof. how can we blame Egypt?, they are a crippled apparatus of corrupt military old generals from the old regime and under paid security guards.
They want to assure their peace with the stronger neighbor -Israel- and apace their stronger financial supporter-The US.
Egypt is trapped between its moral support for their Arabs’ brothers, the Palestinians, and US money, and Israel’s military might.
They play the cards to better serve their masters, and lately they succumbing to the might of the Egyptian people.
We have to be honest with ourselves, The Egyptian people with so many ties with Palestine they do not support the Palestinian struggles, actually grand part of the Egyptian population had the wrongly programed idea that Palestinians are the cause of all their problems. They are neighbors and they have not organized a great coalition to push their government to open the Rafahs’ border once and for all.
In the big scale they do not support the Palestinians. They see them as ignorant Americans do, that blame the Mexicans for United States economical problems
Qadri’s march: Conspiracy theories galore
Posted on January 17, 2013 by Akashma Online News
Source Dunya News
The military has denied any link to Tahirul Qadri.
ISLAMABAD: To Pakistan s ruling party, a firebrand cleric camped outside parliament with thousands of protesters is looking more and more like the harbinger of their worst fear: a plan by the establishment to engineer a “soft coup”.
In their eyes, Muhammad Tahirul Qadri seems like the perfect candidate for such a mission. A practised orator who has electrified crowds with his anti-corruption rhetoric, the doctor of Islamic law leapt into action to back the last power grab by the army in 1999.
The aim this time, some politicians suspect, is to use Qadri to bring down the current administration and provide a pretext for the handpicked caretaker cabinet.
“What we are seeing is dangerous and evidence that the third force is up to its tricks again,” said Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a politician who has been a frequent critic of the army s record of interfering in politics.
The military has denied any link to Qadri, and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has built up a reputation for standing more aloof from politics than predecessors who have not hesitated to dismiss civilian governments. Pakistan has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 65 years as an independent nation.
Critics note, furthermore, that the ruling Pakistan People s Party (PPP), which has a long record of confrontation with the military, has often been quick to portray itself as a victim of bullying by the military to distract attention from its shortcomings.
But the timing of Qadri s return from six years of living in Canada, just a few months before elections are due, and his role in supporting a 1999 coup by former army chief Pervez Musharraf have nonetheless rung alarm bells.
Qadri, who led a convoy of buses carrying thousands of protesters into the capital, Islamabad, on Monday, has repeatedly demanded that the army should have a say in the formation of an interim administration that is due to oversee the run-up to elections in May.
“You meet army officers in the night; I m asking that you consult with them on the caretaker set up under the sunlight,” Qadri said in a speech on Tuesday in remarks clearly addressed to the government.
The PPP s fears over the potential for military meddling centre on the impending formation of a caretaker cabinet.
Pakistan passed a constitutional amendment last year that requires the government and opposition to agree on the
composition of the temporary administration.
The amendment is designed to prevent any ruling party exploiting the advantages of incumbency to manipulate elections
by using state power to skew the playing field.
The PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League, the main opposition party, have spent months negotiating a list of mutually
acceptable names for the transitional cabinet, including a number of politicians noted for resisting military rule.
“The PPP has lost three generations of leaders fighting against dictatorships,” said a senior member of the PPP. “You
think we will give up now? We will take up this battle at all levels.”
Meanwhile, military officers privately do little to conceal their contempt for the PPP, whose government has been unable to end militant violence, bring down sharp food price inflation or get the economy on track since it took power in March, 2008.
They are also dismissive of the Pakistan Muslim League.
One officer, speaking in a personal capacity, said the army had no desire to seize power but might be forced to play a role
as mediator between political factions if the cleric s protests trigger a prolonged crisis.
“If this gets worse, then the army may have to intervene (as a moderator),” he told Reuters.
After years of suspicion and ill-will between the generals and the PPP-led coalition led by President Asif Ali Zardari, Qadri s protests have seemed to signal a shift in the political landscape, with unpredictable consequences.
“We can t say who is behind him. But all we know is that he can t pull this off without backing from someone,” Maulana
Fazlur Rehman, the veteran leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Pakistan s biggest religious party, said on television.
The political temperature soared even higher on Tuesday when Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the arrest of Prime
Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in connection with a corruption case. Authorities have yet to carry out his instructions.
An aide to Ashraf said the military was behind this move as well, but the chief justice is known to be independent-minded.
If Qadri succeeds in bringing down the government, then a man whose name had faded from the limelight since he left
Pakistan for Canada in 2006 will have sabotaged the PPP s bid to be the first civilian government to complete a full term.
That would undermine Pakistan s struggle to bury the legacy of decades of military dictatorship by building institutions
strong enough to resolve the nuclear-armed country s multiple crises.
The military has a track record of picking interim administrations in past decades that have then overstepped their
mandates by hounding the army s political opponents or manipulating elections.
Army officers in Bangladesh, which was part of Pakistan until it broke away in 1971, have used a similar approach to
appoint a technocratic government to implement reforms.
But some commentators and Western diplomats argue that times have changed and the military has lost the appetite for
embroiling itself in struggles with increasingly assertive political parties and a hyperactive media.
“The military has no interest in disrupting the path to elections: in fact their interest is the opposite, supporting
the transfer of power from one elected government to another, which is a political milestone in Pakistan s history,” said
Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington.
Much will depend on whether Qadri has enough rhetorical firepower left to persuade his followers to maintain their
protest, or whether the government decides to order the police to apply pressure to disperse them.
“There is nothing wrong with raising your concerns and protesting,” said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. “But
if you try to hold the capital hostage and disrupt the lives of its people, the law will take its course.”
IMF to Israel Rescue; Gaza Flotilla II too much for Israel Exsausted PR Propaganda Campaign
Posted by Marivel Guzmanand,Omar Karem PS
Israel used all her capital, this time it has the world to her knees but not as you are used to see it, now the world is surrounding Israel and is strangulating her normal campaigns of disinformation. Since last year fatal blow to her reputation, when with the help of mask commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara and killed in cold blood 9 peace activists at close range, Israel can not get back to her normal do’s and undo’s.
Since last year more than one million people around the world have signed to be participants of the world wide flotilla humanitarian mission. If Israel thought that killing activist was going to deter other activists from trying to brake her illegal siege, she was all wrong and since the announcement of the Flotilla II, she has been in a panic running around the world sending her emissaries to every country that have activists signed in the different flotillas “imploring” and begging to the presidents, or prime ministers to stop their citizens from participating.
Even in the US, Obama as in an act of desperation sent a public scare to American Citizens advising that could be illegal to participate in the flotillas. Give me a brake Obama. But seems that the citizens not only of the US but from all over the world are paying deft ears to the warnings. The time has come for Israel to lose her control of the puppets(leaders) and maybe the theater at large (world), Like I said. The theater only function when it has audience to clap, but when we do not care for the act we walk out, and seems that the world finally got tired of the same show that have played over and over without changing the script.
For now Greece is caught up in the mess of her government finances and Israel being all burn by her own lies and disappointments to the world and to their own citizens, now it has to resort to ask for help with the Flotilla II Affairs to the International Monetary Fund that like Shark is been surrounding Greece for few years now and making the Greek government to starve their citizens to “complied” with Austerity measures demanded by the Shark Bank.
The protests has been going on in Greece since few weeks ago that came to the public light the new “Aid” from the IMF to “Help” Greece with her devastated economy.
What took place in the center of Athens these past few days is a complete violation of democratic law,” said Alexis Tsipras, leader of the leftist Syriza party, emerging from the supreme court where he filed a suit against the Greek police.
Fierce fighting erupted outside the Greek parliament on Wednesday as MPs inside voted on the hard-hitting policies demanded by the EU and IMF in exchange for the debt-choked country receiving further aid.
Greek Police Face Investigation Helena Smith from Athens
But don’t think this is the first time that Greece has resorted to take money from the IMF. Back in May 2010:
European governments Sunday endorsed an unprecedented 110-billion-euro bailout to save Greece from bankruptcy and shore up the single currency after Athens agreed to draconian spending cuts.
The first installment of the eurozone-IMF rescue package will be paid within the next few weeks, with the rest spread over three years and conditional on a swathe of painful cuts and tax rises in Greece, they said.
We wonder why a small country such Greece with beautiful beaches and resorts, that generates billions a year just in tourism be doing broke, and asking money from the Shark Bank?….Really what a worker’s wages in a factory has to do with a loan of billions of dollars that will be given to the Bank Industry, and War Machine has to do with him. Why his salary has to be lower down, why the taxes has to increase? he won’t see a penny of that money. We wonder.
Now back to the Flotilla II which ships were docked in the beautiful shores of Greece has to do with the Shark Bank?
Well to answer that question we have to go back to last year “Aid Package Plan to Greece”, The 110 billions to “Rescue” Greece were going to be given in 3 years, but this rescue package was to help Greece to meet her obligations that she already have mounting 300 billions so this money is to cover the interest for her debt. So why will the people of Greece will take this money if is not going to help their economy but to weaken it more. They can always call for a moratory on the debt, which it means Greece can say, “Sorry I do not have money and can not Pay”. What the Shark bank is going to do?..To come to Greece and take all the tanks, military planes, War Ships, that were bought with that money?..or the Bank Moguls that were helped?..really what difference make for Greece if they pay or not?…I guess we little ordinary citizens do not understand the crooks deals that go under the table of a country…
Any way, now that Greece is to again late in her payments of her Debt that by the way have not help Greece on inch ahead in the inflation but have deflated the country, now the European Union has Greece by the neck, but who is the European Union? just another branch of the globalist elite that are rooted in the league of Nations, the same body that thought and founded the State of Israel back in the 40’s. So now after Israel fail in her campaign, and after the mass murder attempt of the sabotaged ships. Israel did not have other recourse but to call to her rescue the biggest bully in the block, The IMF. and they came and they pull George Papandreou ears and told him or you Stop the Flotilla or Else. and Guess ..Off course he Stopped the flotilla.
We wonder what legal …..he used? first how and why the Ship Audacity of Hope was not allowed to sail from Greece?..we saw the development on the facebook walls and in youtube, and other user channels off course where else, the big media does not have air time for this important mission. For the ones that did not followed the events.
Anonymous Call charging the Ship to be unsuited to sail, then Israel PR office release a statement saying that the Ship will be carrying Phosphorous to be use in the Israeli Soldiers, even thought Israel denied later the charge. Any way to be fair and square the organizers of the flotilla call to the media and to the Greece authorities to come to check the Ship in its entirely to dissipate any doubts in the public that they will be carrying any arms or any other kind of materials that it was not food supplies, the love letters and the Ship own supplies.
So after the Ship is Set to go, still the Greece authorities has not grant the permit to sail out, the Ship leave the port and 20 minutes later the Ship is boarded by marked commandos this times Greek Commandos..and the Audacity of Hope is forced to pull back to Greece. Why?
We do not know…8 activists stage a hunger strike in front of the American Embassy and they were arrested, Why? we do not know..By now
July 3, 2011 the Captain of the Ship still is being detain by Greek Authorities..Why? we do not know..
But maybe if we ask the IMF and Israel they can answer those 3 questions.
Now the international peace community is in outrage, we are sending letters to our ambassadors, president, prime minister and anybody that can help us, first to give protection to our citizens, second to stop Israel in her smear campaign and third to awaken the conscience of the deft, dumb leaders of the world and start thinking in their citizens and not in Israel.
Add your voices and send letter of protest to your President, Congressmen, Ambassador, Consul and yell because they seem to be deft.
The lies that were told by Israel Apparatus were official and un official as well, they did not spare time and money to mount the disinformation campaign against the Flotilla, only a distress Israel was taking so efforts in convincing the world of the “Thread of the Flotilla”.
Read with Caution the next article and always read between the lines.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister: Flotilla Sabotage Thanks to IDF:
Well, Bogie Yaalon’s actual words quoted in Ynet (Hebrew) were: “Those problems the Flotilla’s having in realizing their plans didn’t just happen. They’re thanks to the work of the political echelon whose focus was on diplomatic political issues, and operational work of the IDF to prepare for every possible eventuality.” The last phrase is doublespeak which both reveals and conceals at the same time, a formulation any Israeli would recognize as not just alluding to an IDF role in sabotage, but practically bragging about it. What possible role could the IDF be playing currently in frustrating the plans of the Flotilla if it isn’t the round of sabotage that struck at least three boats? Hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink wink.
Lest you doubt the guy’s bona fides, he’s a former IDF chief of staff and current minister for strategic affairs. His statement of course was meant to toot his ministry’s horn since he was claiming credit for the role he played in the sabotage.
Apparently the foreign ministry didn’t get the memo and took a totally contradictory tack in attacking the credibility of the Flotilla activists who claimed sabotage. Yigal Palmor, clearly in his uber-mendacious mode said this:
Paranoids, cry-babies. The Flotilla organizers haven’t even done the minimum to prove there was sabotage. They live in a James Bond movie.
You mean an admission by the deputy prime minister of his own government doesn’t suffice? As for James Bond, whenever an Israeli journalist wishes to praise the work of the Mossad in assassinating Iranian scientists or implanting computer worms in Iranian nuclear facilities, he uses the James Bond example meant as a compliment. What I think Palmor really means to say is “We’re James Bond and we’re proud of it.” That’s what Ronen Bergman said of Meir Dagan’s Mossad a few months ago before the chief spook retired.
We have had enough of lies, murder, criminal acts, genocide, wars, Israel, Zionism. No more..We are tired of impunity and silence. We are speaking, we are doing what we think is right. Don’t you?
Americans Need to Know More About Palestine
Americans Need to Know More About Palestine
Posted on 28. Oct, 2010 by Marivel Guzman from original Post Raja Mujtaba in Interviews
Interview with Jamal Krayem Kanj: Author Children of Catastrophe
Interview by Elias Harb
Author Jamal Kanj talks about life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. In his recent book “Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian refugee camp to America”, he provides an account of life from Palestine to refugee camps in Lebanon and the events leading for the creation of the state of Israel.
Jamal Kanj joined me in an exclusive interview to discuss his book Children of Catastrophe.
ELIAS HARB: In your book you convey the personal aspect of the life of the refugees. Can you tell us what inspired you to write Children of Catastrophe?….
ELIAS HARB: In your book you convey the personal aspect of the life of the refugees. Can you tell us what inspired you to write Children of Catastrophe?
JAMAL K. KANJ: The Americans and the West in general are not well aware of the Palestinian experience. On the surface and at an emotional level, they are generally more sympathetic towards Israel, but this is mainly due to their lack of understanding or total disconnect with the human side of the Palestinian story.
Also one must recognize that the peculiar relationship between Israel and the West is deeply rooted in a long history of abhorrent Western anti Semitism culminating in the Holocaust. Hence, it was a mix of sympathy, guilt, and religious institutions in America and Europe which played an important role in shaping the lopsided view towards the Palestine Israel conflict.
Having lived in the US for thirty years after leaving the camp, I discovered that most people tend to switch off when trying to make an intellectual or historical argument explaining the Palestinian position. At the same time, I observed that the majority can better connect and listen when the intellectual or the historical argument is framed within the personal experience. During those 30 years, almost everyone whom I came to know at a social level consciously or subconsciously became more sympathetic with the Palestinians.
To sum it up, the main impetuous for writing this book remains my strong conviction that we, as Palestinians have a powerful story to share with the rest of the world, especially in the West. Throughout the pages of this book, I hope to connect with all those whom I have not, or may not have the honor meeting personally, to share with them the personal aspects of the Palestinian side of the story.
EH: Can you briefly tell us of the British role facilitating the Zionist colonization of Palestine?
JKK: While the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was founded in Europe in the late 1800s, their plan to colonize Palestine did not start to take shape until the 1920s and 1930s. One major reason, up until 1917 and in addition to Palestine, the Zionist movement contemplated other options for this “Promised land” such as Uganda, Cyprus, Sinai and parts of Argentina.
They basically were willing to take any “real estate” property a colonial power was willing to sell them. But in November 1917, and to sway the purported “influential” Jewish opinion in the US on the war (at the time, WZO had very close relation with the German Kaiser and maintained its headquarter in Germany) the British Foreign Ministry issued a letter to a Jewish banker, Baron Walter Rothschild, promising the banker with a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Opinion MakerRead More Opinion Maker Foresight with Insight
Buy The Book in Amazon.com This interview is only little of the great amount of information that you can find in the book, read it make your mind, read the stories of the victims, the refugees that fled the massacres.
“There is no more negligence to the truth when we choose to stay ignorant of our world realities and we take the easiest road and become numb and stay in the dark, Why? because we do not want to deal with our world. We insist that we can not do anything and become piled up with the Rest, the ignorant, the deaf, the careless and eternal whimpers that complain of everything but do nothing.” Marivel Guzman
We have countless notes, articles, books written on the subject “Palestine” we see a glimpse once and while in the evening news and for a moment we become glue to the screen for only for the grotesque pictures, and for the lack of sensitivity as if Palestinians as less than humans. I grew up seeing those images but not in News, no those images where portrayed in sensationalist magazines those that people regard as gossips, how little I knew back then that those stories were the truth, how little I knew that the News were just lies, feed by the propaganda machine. Now I can not get confuse from truth or lies, now I SEE, I invite you to try at least to revisit your memories and analyze what you learn, what you read and try to give Palestinians their humanity back. They were wronged, they were abused, killed, tortured, massacred, they are ethnic cleanse and still there are No News on the Paid Corporate Media about them. Research for yourself, see the picture, talk to Palestinians, they have another story to tell.
I insist sometimes in making distinction in titles, labels given to people, I do not agree with the title because I m American and that title “Americans” tend to generalize, first on the wrong idea that all Americans live in United States, and that All Americans think like their leaders.
Just in the US of North America we are littler over 300 million people and believe we all are one mind of our own and not all are Bad, or corrupted minds, some have make the leap and are awake and know the different from Good and Bad..
The Next Knock Out, Forclosure & Banks Bail Outs, Wars & Profits, Accidents/Catastrophes and More!
Posted on April 1, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
The Wars,Earthquakes,Tsunamis,Nuclear and Oil Accidents,Revolutions, all paying off well. “Blue chips achieving the best quarterly gains since 1998”. OH! Bad News for Jobless American, 6,000 Americans lost benefits, but don’t worry! “Seasonally adjusted 388,000, which was mostly in line with analysts’ previous estimates”. So it makes it OK, because they Estimated it. Statistics are Fake Numbers to Numb your MIND
U.S stocks traded mixed in the last trading day of the first quarter, with blue chips achieving the best quarterly gains since 1998.
Investors were concerned that a possible inflation risk might hurt the U.S. economic recovery as oil prices on Thursday hit the highest level since September 2008. Meanwhile, the market stayed uneasy as many markets-affecting issues, such as the nuclear leakage incidents in quake-hit Japan and unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, remained unsettled.
The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, fell below 18.
On the economic front, the U.S. jobless data last week showed the jobs market was still on the track of improving. The Labor Department posted that initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, which was mostly in line with analysts’ previous estimates.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured goods fell 0.1 percent to 446 billion dollars, after an upwardly revised 3.3 percent gain in January.
As for stocks, basic materials still led the gainers on Thursday. Transportation and energy sectors were also among the biggest winners but financial shares were down 0.23 percent as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rejected American International Group’s plan to repurchase a risky set of mortgage-backed securities late Wednesday.
Frauds and Bonuses
AIG settles longstanding fraud cases for $1 billion
Isn’t is neat?, this Giant Insurance American Insurance Company engaged in one of the biggest frauds on American history and make billions on the scam and settle for 750,000 Millions. Plus get Bail Out Money.
And the Big Bonuses and Bribes started rolling in the high circles of corruption, high up in the the floors of the tallest buildings.
So Who Win and Who Loose? We the People Loose and The Bankers Win.
But what about the “Natural Disasters”!, Weather Defense System, Ring Any Bells? HAARP could accidentally lose control of the Frequencies that Generates? Maybe and cooking the Earth at very low frequency is a dangerous Business to engage, unless they have a magic wand to stop the process once is unleashed. How much of control does HAARP has over their Giants Antennas? Could they generate a strong Earthquake able to shake the sea beds and created a Giant Wave?
The United States Navy and Air Force have joined with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to build a prototype for a ground based “Star Wars” weapon system located in the remote bush country of Alaska.
The individuals who are demanding answers about HAARP are scattered around the planet. As well as bush dwellers in Alaska, they include: a physician in Finland; a scientist in Holland; an anti-nuclear protester in Australia; independent physicists in the United States; a grandmother in Canada, and countless others.
And who win and who lose, Insurance Companies, The International Monetary Fund will come to the rescue, …Say Again!…Bankers will rescue the devastated Countries, and those countries will need some food to survive..Guess!
MONSANTO comes to the rescue donating infected (Genetically Modified Seeds)…
The base of any species survival reside in the SEED. When we modify the structure of development of its genes we are creating a molecular conflict with its environment and its ability to evolve and adapt to the surroundings that were in place before its modification.
Monsanto have played in this field for quite some times, in its efforts to monopolize the supply of seeds, control its development and future behavior in a specific type of soil, which have also been modified to create the conditions for the new structure to grow.Monsanto can change the genes of a particular specie of seed, and maybe change the soil where it will be developed, but Monsanto can not possible control all the conditions in the environment; such the weather conditions that are required to create healthy plants, microscopic organisms that by normal natural law live in certain types of soils.
Monsanto More Dangerous than War Itself
China might be the WWIII Winner, if we survive it. Think Again. The Sleeping Giant? After all all the civilized world sent, their manufactures to China, All kind of “Made in China” the Whole World got inundated with electronics, clothing, toys, gadgets, even babies. Now we have a Giant Country that own most of Government Bonds of the Civilized World. We made China Strong, and we all weaken our Countries. And Now What?
Huang Haiyuang, a senior researcher
who has traveled widely in
the West, summarized seven PLA technological
priorities:
information operations and warfare
air and missile technology
precision guided munitions
defensive weapon technology
unmanned aerial vehicle technology
military space technology
naval carrier (air-to-ship integration).
China Liberation Army: Looks At The Future
by C H A R L E S F. H A W K I N S
Armageddon! Nope…We The People are The Sleeping Giant…Time To WAKE UP..and Take Control of your Future, or others will do for you.
WHEN Israeli Jets Bombard Gaza Strip (via Akashma Web Blogs)
When Israel attacked Gaza in the winter of 2009, close to 1500 Palestinians died, including 600 children under 16, more than 300 women and elderly died in a 22 days of Israel bombardment.
The world did not watched the massacre in the news because the stream media decided not to cover the actions of Israel. Some outlets briefly mentioned some deaths but always making sure the blame was in Palestinians and not in the mighty army of Israel that with all her war arsenal was allowed to attack a defenseless country that do not possess one single plane, tank, or war ship.
Palestine is a sitting duck for Israel and even thought some leaders around the world are fast to blame the few resistance fighters that still dare to confront the mighty of Israel.
Time and time again every president of United States have given Israel the right to “Defend herself”, telling with this coward statement that is ok to keep killing Palestinians, No body care for them!.
But they’re wrong, more and more people around the world have finally noticed Israel tactics and how the use of propaganda to sway the blame away from her.
Resistance Is the Right to The People to Exist With Prospect For Peace
Posted on March 28, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
How to subsist without resistance, when the law of the jungle is enforced on the weak of the world?
We have the West with its mighty Army of paid soldiers and hungry mercenaries enforcing ‘Democracy’, planting death and destruction. Ravaging the land they chose to destroy. They bend the will of the people using the most horrifying methods men have invented in the last 100 years.
US and its Allies went to Iraq and have killed close to a million people, destroyed the infrastructure of one of the oldest and most advance societies of the World. Iraq with its glorious history, it wealth, pride and natural resources taken as a booty as ordinary theft. They invented all the preliminary excuses to corner the government of Sadam Hussein, they enforced a no fly Zone In the North and in the South of Iraq, destroyed all Military Power of Iraq, they got the UN to imposed terrible sanctions, the Oil was to be sold to the Agencies specified by the UN only, in a term of 10 years Iraq was economically destroyed, military destroyed so when US and Allies invaded it was easy pray.
Now we have the story repeating itself with another Oil Producer Country this time is Libya in the North of Africa and one of the 10 exporter of Oil, in this case as the African Oil Producer are in a specific situation they have this Light Oil Crude, cheap and easy to Refine. The US and Allies prepare the territory with a fake civil war, CIA style and once the situation is right, again they are using the UN to imposed a No Fly Zone, where the only missiles that kill will be that of US and Allies.
Who gives the right to the UN to sign death sentences of unarmed population,
Who say that they have the right to disposed of the Natural Resources of a Sovereign Country?
Israel The Other Bully in the Block, every year with made up excuses, force the US or the UN to brake up a government or two.
Israel has kept Palestine isolated from the world, has kept Palestine unable to defend herself, her society destroyed, her economy to receive crumbs from the International Community, her agricultural lands ravaged, her people terrorized, incarcerated and tortured, and as if all the horrors that Palestinians live every day are not enough Israel has made believe the world that they are the terrorist. So outrageous for the people that knows the truth, it is unbelievable that the West and its allies knowing the truth they have financed and armed Israel.
The UN Club of 5 knowing the truth, they have kept a blind eye on the massacres perpetrated by Israel, the murders of Palestinians citizens, the target assassinations of her leaders all being cover up and ignore by the international body that suppose to enforce human rights around the world, the International body that supposed to enforce peace.
Lies that Stick, Struggles that Sell. The Media Broke Out the Silence
Posted on March 29, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Palestine Youth Broke the Silence! Not after the Tunisia Revolution and certainly not after the Egyptian Revolution.
“Palestinian youth have been inspired by uprisings in Arab countries, Pushing for a Palestinian Tahrir” Aljazeera Channel
I don’t think so, [Aljazeera] Palestinian youth have plenty of inspiration to uprise in their own merit. I think 63 years are few generations of struggles, pains, death, suppression and oppression being from their own leadership, but mostly from Israel IDF soldiers. The Palestinian Youth of today have suffered more than other youth around the world, and I don’t think that the inspiration born out of Tunisia or Egypt.
Palestinian youth have been resisting their own internal struggles they have been in the walls of facebook, youtube, myspace and other networks for years, in these days you taking notice of them is different because it seems that you the ‘Big Networks’, the ‘Big Media’ never have paid attention to their cries.
That you the Streamedia are writing about them it is a different story, and you did it because it sound juicy for your ratings.
The Struggles of Palestine
When the Youth Of Gaza Broke Out Manifesto first made the light to the streammedia, it was the first time that the manifesto was in the wires and it was not the first time the youth of Gaza broke the silence (GYBO). They have been braking the silence in their struggle with Israel with the world, they have been dying in front of your cameras and they have been called the perpetrators, they have been fighting with bare hands and rocks against tanks and you the media have been calling them the terrorists, they have been incarcerated and tortured and you have been silenced.
You the media is the one that broke the silence on January when the activists in the worldwide in a bold move sided with them and we all push for their voices to be heard. When you saw that they were making waves then you took advantage of their light and you decided that the story was good enough to be written about it.
They did not inspire out of Jasmin Revolution or the Tahrir Square, NO! Sandy Tolan, you picked up that title because it is catchy and sounds good and will be grab in the crawler of the web.
Now there are conflicts with the two main political parties in Palestine, from one side we have the Palestinian Authority closure of more than 300 NGOs in West Bank, charities that Hamas over the years has financed and sponsored, and they [Hamas] were doing the right thing in the Occupied Territories, but the egos got lose and the PA could not accept Hamas’victory without inflicting low punches, without seeing that the only losers are the Palestinians. Since 1982 Hamas is the organization that has been in charge of most of the health and social life of Palestine.
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian Territory, Maxwell Gaylard, today voiced his concern about the forced closure on 30 November by the local authorities in Gaza of all Gaza-based offices of the non-governmental organization Sharek Youth Forum.
“I am very concerned about the recent forced closing of Sharek Youth Forum in Gaza. Sharek is an important NGO partner of the United Nations in its work on behalf of children and the youth in Gaza”, Mr. Gaylard said.
Mr. Gaylard noted that “Sharek’s work forms part of the many important activities carried out by civil society organizations in the occupied Palestinian Territory promoting development and the protection of human rights.“
He stated that freedom of association and freedom of expression are fundamental rights protected by international law as well as the Palestinian Basic Law and expressed his hope that Sharek would be permitted to continue its work in Gaza without further delay or undue hindrance.
Statement by Maxwell Gaylard,
United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian Territory
On the Closure of Sharek Youth Forum in the Gaza StripJerusalem, 7 December 2010
Since 2007 the Fatah-dominated government in the West Bank has also closed more than 300 Hamas and Islamic-linked charities and NGOs.
I don’t see the UN raising the flag for the 300 Charities closed down in West Bank by the PA, not that Sharek Youth Forum be less important, but my note is in the context of marking the double standards used to emphasize the wrongs of one political party vs the other one, Hamas over their favorite Fatah.
The PA that is being cracking down on the resistance in the West Bank pleasing and serving the interest of Israel. Maybe the goal is toward “The Peace Talks” but we all know that Israel does not recognized Abbas as a “Peace Partner.”
Seriously speaking Israel does not know the meaning of peace.
And let’s mention also the continuous arrests of peaceful protesters in West Bank and Jerusalem, but not from the PA but from IDF forces that without mercy use lethal force to stop the demonstrators from expressing their opposition to the illegal Wall, the closure of Shuhada Street in Hebron, the demolitions of homes in East Jerusalem, the dispossession of homes, the illegal arrests of Palestinians and other very serious issues that the UN keep ignoring, even the murder of internationals is not a serious topic for our “Peace Keepers in New York Headquarters.”
Where is the Big Media in these important events that take place inside Palestine? Why don’t you Brake the Silence and exposed Israel Once and for all?..Will be the day that we will be celebrating Earth Day.
The next excerpts was taken from an article published by Aljazeera, I bring it to you because it has some good information, I do not agree with the way they portray the youth of Palestine taking the merit of their struggles, but now they are taking their time to give you a taste of the occupation with the “Big Media flavor”. Even thought in their article I see the youth of West Bank is not Numb as the great majority of the population, they [youth] see the situation from their young minds from different perspective.
“If you look at our social situation, people in Ramallah don’t care, mostly speaking,” says Dina Shilleh, a 27-year-old piano teacher who returned with her parents from Serbia during the heady early days of Oslo. “If they can go out, they have their car, they have their house, they can dress nicely, that’s kind of what it’s about. There’s a lot that’s been sedated. Because in the end you want to live. It’s like, hey, how long do you want to keep fighting? My grandparents fought, my parents fought. Am I gonna do it? My kids? It would have to be something that would really spark the people to get out of this numbness.”
I personally have experienced the disinterest from some Palestinians here in California and in Ramallah, they simply don’t care, they can come to the US, they work, eat and entertain themselves as long as they are not taking the heat from the IDF they care less for Gaza or for the struggles of Shuhada Street residents or East Jerusalem.
It is disappointing but also I see they are tired of fighting, they lived the occupation in their worse times, what can we do to wake up their dreams of freedom again?
Aljazeera Article published March, 05, 2011
On a cool January evening at the height of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, Najwan Berekdar and a few friends were sitting at a smoky café in Ramallah, puffing on water pipes and strategising. “We were talking about what’s happening in Tunisia, and we decided, maybe this is the momentum – we should use it,” Berekdar remembers weeks later from her office at Sharek, a youth-oriented Palestinian NGO. “We were, like, five people. We were sitting with our laptops and we said, ‘Okay, let’s make an event.’ We wanted something to encourage people to go out.” Within days, masses of Egyptians began filling Tahrir Square, and 27-year-old Berekdar, her friends and like-minded Palestinian youths were even more inspired. “We wanted to send this message that it is time for us to do something. And obviously we can do it. Look at other people. If they managed to do it, we can do it.” The demonstrations these Palestinian youths helped organized were quickly banned, sometimes with clubs, by a Palestinian Authority (PA) with deep historic and political ties to the Tunisian and Egyptian dictatorships. But then other groups began forming their own demonstrations. And Berekdar and her friends, through email loops and a face-to-face “thinking group” of about 20 academics and intellectuals, organized new protests. “We were suppressed by the PA a second time and a third time,” she says. Soon Palestinian authorities began to investigate the group. “One of our group members was called by the police, and by the intelligence, and by – I don’t know, we have four security forces, I think,” Berekdar says. (Actually, there are five.) “They stayed at his home until one in the morning.” The mukhabarat assumed the young man was the ringleader, Berekdar recalls with amusement. They pressed him for details of the hierarchy of what is in fact a loose, ever-shifting coalition that only recently got a name: Hirak Shebab, or Youth Movement. It is an informal, mostly leaderless group – a concept the centralised PA does not seem to grasp. As Berekdar spoke, at 1:30 on a recent afternoon, an email came in from a friend. About the demonstration that day at 6:00: Should they do it at Manara Square in the centre of Ramallah or outside the Muqata, the PA headquarters? Berekdar was not sure. Scarcely four hours before the event, she seemed unhurried, and confident of Hirak Shebab’s ability to get sufficient numbers to show up at the last minute. Berekdar is trying to involve young people, both unaffiliated and from different Palestinian parties, including Hamas. She estimates that so far about 2,000 people connect with the group’s message pushing for democracy and fundamental change. “It’s about changing the whole discourse of the Palestinians,” she says. “It is time for us to start doing something. Because obviously the political leadership is not doing anything.” The ‘pulse of Palestine’ In the revolutionary spirit spreading across the Middle East, Palestinian youth groups have become a small but important catalyst in a building wave of discontent with PA repression and complicity in a failed “peace process” backed by the US. The groups’ actions are sparked not only by events in the region, but by the US veto of the UN Security Council’s condemnation of Israeli settlements. A widening circle of Palestinian groups are calling for an end to negotiations with Israel, an end to the political division between the West Bank and Gaza and wholesale reform of the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Some advocate dissolving the PA completely. “Fatah and Hamas have failed Palestinian society,” says Nader Said, a Palestinian pollster and political analyst. Youth, he says, “represent the pulse and conscience of Palestine”. In Gaza, Said says, young people “are the ones who have demonstrated in the middle of the shooting, covering their faces with paper bags,” so that security forces would refrain from possibly shooting a brother or cousin. “They are the soul of the Palestinians,” but by themselves, “they’re not strong enough to carry the emancipation agenda.” Yet the message is resonating well beyond the youth groups. As Palestinians under a 43-year occupation watch their Arab neighbours fight for democracy, pressure increases on the PA to reform itself – or at least, to appear to do so. Faced with the threat of the US veto, the PA sought to burnish its resistance credentials by refusing to yield to American pressure to call off the Security Council vote. And Salam Fayyad, the prime minister, recently sent a message to Palestinian youth via Facebook, asking for input as he forms a new Palestinian cabinet. Within hours, he received hundreds of replies – some supportive, some sceptical. “Now suddenly they’re this nationalistic body that’s clinging to Palestinian rights?” scoffed Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and former PA negotiator, in a recent interview. “They’ve put their finger to the wind, and realised that the wind has changed. Right now you don’t want to be seen as the one nation that’s clinging to the United States. So they had to do something.” But others say the pressure from emerging Arab democracies, and what one insider called the “betrayal” by the US, may force the PA to turn inward, and thus make the kind of core changes it has long resisted. “We do not want an authority that is a buffer between the people and the occupation,” says Qais Abu Leila, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a founder of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. “We need a Palestinian Authority that is part of the people and a continuation of the struggle against occupation.” Abu Leila believes the shifting political landscape may force the PA to confront its increasingly undemocratic, authoritarian character. “We are now facing the danger of the emergence of more or less police regimes” in Gaza and the West Bank. Under the PA, he says, “gradually the democratic checks and balances of government are fading away”. ‘A quiet colonisation’ Fundamental change within the PA, if it happened, would likely include a reassessment of its security cooperation with Israel. Some coordination of visas and safe passages, and movement of Palestinian police between West Bank towns, would continue, reformers say. More draconian measures seen as collaboration with Israel’s occupation could be suspended. These include the extralegal arrest and detention of hundreds of Palestinians, and incidents of torture, documented by Palestinian human rights groups, in the name of fighting terrorism and preventing a Hamas takeover in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch recently called on the US and EU to suspend aid to the PA “pending concrete steps to end a culture of impunity for security service abuses, including torture”. But a Palestinian decision to suspend security cooperation would likely have huge financial consequences. In recent years the US has spent nearly half a billion dollars in training and “professionalising” key parts of a 25,000-strong Palestinian security apparatus under three-star American general Keith Dayton. The money flow would likely reduce to a trickle if basic principles of the arrangement were suspended. Some analysts believe the PA could survive possible cuts in US funding, especially if the EU stepped into the breach. Others are sceptical. “The PA is a security subcontractor for Israel,” says Buttu. Despite the pressure the PA is facing, she does not foresee any change. “The whole aim is to allow Israel to have a very quiet occupation, a very quiet colonisation.” “We alleviated the occupation from its responsibility,” agrees Ali Jarbawi, a longtime critic of the authority who recently joined the government as the Palestinian minister of planning. “And they [Israelis] are living happily ever after when you go to Dizengoff Street and sip wine with the yuppies at these sidewalk cafés. As if the West Bank does not exist. As if Gaza does not exist. As if the Palestinians do not exist.” Jarbawi believes the two-year state-building plan the PA put in place in 2009, overseen by Fayyad, should be given a chance to work – but only until September 2011. Jarbawi insists there must be a limit to official Palestinian patience. “You can’t keep the negotiation track open forever, and keep the dependency on aid also open forever, so the world is paying for the continuation of the occupation. And at the same time they are building settlements on the ground, eating what’s supposed to become our state.” Jerusalem: ‘The next Tahrir?’ After September, Jarbawi says, the Palestinian strategy could include an end run around the US, through an appeal to the other members of the “Quartet” – the EU, Russia and the UN – to recognise a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Already nine Latin American nations have stepped forward. “Brazil, through this letter, recognises the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders,” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the then Brazilian president, wrote to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in December. Other options Jarbawi envisions include asking for an international presence in the West Bank, building a new, nonviolent intifada – “one million people walking down the streets, chanting for an end to occupation” – or even dissolving the very authority in which Jarbawi now works. “That has to remain a viable option,” he says. Abu Leila believes dissolving the PA is unrealistic. But he insists the pressure for reform has become too great to ignore. “There is an almost universal recognition that there must be radical change in Palestine, and that it must start with ending the division” with Gaza, he says, echoing comments by Berekdar and many others. He calls this step essential “in order to face the occupation and a hostile policy adopted by the US. The PA could organise the Palestinian society in a way that could fuel the struggle against the Israeli occupation. This is a meaningful option.” This may be starting to happen. In February, Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of the Central Committee of the PLO and until recently the PA security chief, called for “days of rage” protests against the American veto in the Security Council. “They consider themselves the masters of the world,” said the man who until recently helped coordinate security arrangements with Israel and the US. “They [the Americans] call for democracy and freedom. They say that they want this for all nations of the world, but when it comes to the Palestinian people, it just evaporates. The interest of our people is the most important thing. We will say no to the Americans if it is not in the interest of our people.” Some Palestinians believe a nonviolent popular uprising is coming in Palestine – whether backed by the PA or not. “Resistance has always been a unifying force,” says Hani Masri of Badael, the Ramallah think-tank. “The youth, they are telling the leadership, either you will be changing or you will be changed.” Masri and others are discussing mass mobilisations, including 50,000 to 100,000 Palestinians marching peacefully to Qalandia, the checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah that now resembles an international border crossing. Beyond that, he asks, “why can’t we turn Jerusalem into the next Tahrir?” Weekly protests in the Palestinian towns of Bili’in, Budrus and Nili’in have already received international attention as focal points of a nonviolent Palestinian resistance. But whether mass mobilisations will actually take place to confront the Israeli occupation is another matter. High price of confrontation “The big question today is whether the Palestinian society has the juice to create a real civil disobedience, refusing-the-occupation campaign,” says Gershon Baskin, the co-director of the Jerusalem-based Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, and a strong advocate of the two-state solution. “There are 24,000 Palestinians working in settlements. Two Rami Levi supermarkets opened up in the West Bank, and many of the shoppers are Palestinian. If you’re going to wage a campaign to simply say we’re not cooperating any more with the occupation, then what that means is you’re not going to work in Israel any more, you’re not going to work in the Israeli settlements … You’re going to have confrontation with the occupation. And that has a very high price.” Would Palestinians, so dependent on the foreign-funded jobs and services that Buttu calls “donor heroin,” be willing to forego the sharp reduction in aid that would surely accompany a new strategy of confrontation? “In the short term we would really pay a heavy price economically,” Buttu agrees. “For one thing, you wouldn’t see people sitting around in nice cafés like this,” she says, smiling ironically while sitting in Ramallah’s Café de la Paix. But confronting the occupation “would definitely unite people who are not united now”. “Something could spark it,” Baskin says. “Who would have predicted Tunisia, Egypt, Libya? But I don’t see Palestinian society having the energy today to do it. Israelis and Palestinians today feel much more comfortable pushing a ‘like’ button on their Facebook page than going out to the street.” That may or may not be true. As major checkpoints have come down recently, the occupation has loosened around Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin, and relative freedom within a small portion of the West Bank has created a sense of limited breathing room. For some Palestinians, quality of life has gone up. Some say the “donor heroin” has created a sense of comfort, even complacency, in the small enclave inside the West Bank. “If you look at our social situation, people in Ramallah don’t care, mostly speaking,” says Dina Shilleh, a 27-year-old piano teacher who returned with her parents from Serbia during the heady early days of Oslo. “If they can go out, they have their car, they have their house, they can dress nicely, that’s kind of what it’s about. There’s a lot that’s been sedated. Because in the end you want to live. It’s like, hey, how long do you want to keep fighting? My grandparents fought, my parents fought. Am I gonna do it? My kids? It would have to be something that would really spark the people to get out of this numbness.” And yet, when Hirak Shebab organised demonstrations at Manara Square recently, Dina answered the call. “We need a new leadership,” she says, recalling her chants against the occupation and in favour of democracy. “We need a new idea.”
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No Fly Zone,No Kill Zone In Gaza Should Be Enforced
Posted on March 22, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Our World Is In Danger
The Peace Activists of the world in their efforts to stop the slaughter in Gaza by Israeli Missiles, is demanding that the UN members to draft a resolution addressing this matter, and that in their provisions include that:
“No country will have the right to override the power of the majority of its members”, and with this to set a precedent for future resolutions involving peace in the world.
For so long we have seen how That UN members have played a game of politics for the only purpose of distracting the world.
We have seen how resolution over resolution have been ignored by Israel or veto by US, when the resolutions involve in any way the protection of Palestinians.
UN Club have for many years insulted our intellect with their endless sessions that don’t serve any purpose but to legalize wars and conflicts. It seems that UN is not the enforcer of peace but the legitimizer and stamper of wars.
The World in this moments suffer the worse of the conflicts ever seen in the history of humanity, we have developed the most dangerous weapons that anybody can imagine, we count with weapons:
Able to pulverize entire buildings, to melt the most strong of the metals leaving no trace, to burn and disintegrate organic matter in matter of seconds, we are able to shake whole cities by the push of few bottoms, we can created storms and droughts in a matter of hours, we can change the directions of the currents of the oceans and disrupt the reproductive cycle of the ocean creatures, we control the weather and with that we change the pattern of the migrations of the birds. We really should be afraid of our technology.
Israel being one of the most advance technologically speaking entities in the world, it makes her the most dangerous for peace in the middle east and in the world, for her arrogance and disregards of international law. And also because she never abide by the rules of war and conflicts already established by the Geneva Convention and the Human Rights Status, does not share her military inventions, does not disclosure her illegal reverse engineer technology, and her nuclear capabilities.
The UN should retake its role in the pacification of the world, and should start with Israel.
And abolish the Veto Power of the Club of 5.
We need as a humanity to step our efforts to stop the rogue nations that do not serve the world, but their own agenda of destruction and control.
Public Denounce To Mr Hammad, the Minister of Interior in Gaza-I’m Palestinian, Am I a Criminal?
Posted on March 20, 2011 by Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem
I m Omar Karem, I m Palestinian, I Live in Gaza. I m amateur photographer, writer and blogger, I was assaulted, beat and robed.
On March 18, 2011 co-owner of this Web Blog, Omar Karem was violently assaulted on the street in downtown Gaza, he was forced to accompanied some security men for ‘questioning!,’ but he was not taken to the police department office, but, to some rooms around the “Unknown Soldier Square, ” before than the incident occurred, he witnessed some other security officers approaching two foreign women and and Karem saw how the officers took the women’s cameras.
Karem said than he saw how two other women were being arrested.
Once in those ‘rooms’ the security officers took Karem’s suitcase and openned his laptop and starting looking at his private files.
Karem said he was kicked when asked, “Why are you hitting me, go hit the Israeli” they slammed his head on the wall and one of the officers told him, “You should thanks your God, we don’t brake your legs”.
They kept asking him his name, and one of them told him, “I know you, you work for Fatah”, other officers told him that he works for an American and Israeli Agenda. Every time he tried to talk his head was slammed on the wall. He saw another 6 people, in there, for two other women they took their cell phones, and told them to come back tomorrow for questioning.
All this is happen to regular citizens that take pictures for the marches going on in Gaza, hours later another event took place in the offices of Reuter.
GAZA, March 19 (Reuters) – Several armed men entered Reuters’ office in Gaza on Saturday, threatened employees with guns and took away a video camera, apparently after they spotted a reporter filming a demonstration from the building. The men struck one Reuters journalist on the arm with a metal bar and threatened to throw another out of the window of the high-rise block. The group, which numbered about 10 men, smashed a television set and other equipment before leaving.
The same group, several of whom were carrying pistols, also forcibly entered the nearby offices of U.S. broadcaster CNN and the Japanese station NHK. They seized videotape at NHK.
The men told Reuters journalists that they came from the internal security services of Hamas, the Islamist group which governs the Palestinian enclave, but they showed no documents.
The arrests and violence on citizens are going around the clock, more cameras are confiscated, more students beat and interrogated and the government still deny that the actions came from their security forces.
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“Initial information shows these men were not from the government. We have arrested some of them and we are going to interrogate them and see who they were acting for,” Interior Minister Fathi Hammad told reporters.
He added that he had told all security services to treat journalists with respect and prevent attacks on them.
An excerpt from the office of theInterior Minister Office
The protection of the citizens of Gaza is in the hands of the security of the government of Gaza, that I think were hired to protect us from violence coming from Israel or from anyone else. If the security forces are going to attack innocent people in Gaza, then we don’t need them, we have enough with Israel continuous ttacks and violence
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said: “We are extremely concerned at this unwarranted assault on our staff and urge the authorities to ensure that journalists can work freely in Gaza.” The Reuters staff attacked were Palestinian. The violence flared shortly after uniformed Hamas security forces broke up a small rally which had been called to call for Palestinian unity and reconciliation between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas’s rival Fatah group.
Reuters had filmed a journalist from the Associated Press being detained at the protest. The man was later released, AP said.
According to some witness that were detained and released and which cameras and phones were confiscated, where told that they need a permission to take pictures. The strange is that dozens of journalists, photographers and other personal of News agencies in Gaza, hold a Press Permit and their cameras were confiscated and they were arrested also.
It was the second time in a week that media organizations have came under attack in Gaza. Witnesses said security forces beat photographers and cameramen on Tuesday as they tried to film another Palestinian unity rally in the city.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories, condemned the March 15 crackdown: “This is the latest in a string of chilling attacks on reporters in Gaza,” it said in a statement.
Hamas denied accusations that it was responsible for the violence, blaming the assault on “different youth groups”.
There are conflicts in the statements that were released by the information office of the Minister of Interior and what their own employees are saying in the blogs, and in facebook, and what it is happening in the streets. The attacks on journalist and in citizens with cameras has been more frequent since the Youth Of Gaza Broke the Silence in December 27, 2010, where some of their member were arrested, tortured and released.
No one doubt that there are groups in Gaza that tried to demoralize the movement of Unity, and also groups that want to defame Hamas, but also there is no doubt that they gone far in their attempts to “Silence the Cameras”, but they are forgetting something in this technological age that we live now, even Gaza with their 4 year old siege count with thousands of mobil phones equipped with cameras and many other recording devices, so in their attempt to keep control, in the last 3 months all they have done is to loose popularity in Gaza.
Two days ago on March 18 to be exact I tried all day to call my friend Omar Karem in Gaza, and someone keep answering the phone, in Arabic and all they will say, No Omar in here. After maybe the 10 try a voice asked; “Who are you”, so me having committed no crime and not knowing what whats going on with my friend, I respond I m Marivel. and he asked me, where you calling from, so I told him, I m calling from the United States and he hung up.
So by now, I m all curious, I called again and different person answer this time, Alo!..I said..Wek Omar? I m learning few sentences in Arab/english the new virtual language in the wires. He told me Omar is not here and he hung up.
So I called again and the same voice ask me, why you call Omar?..so by this time I m mad, I keep talking and checking the number I dialed and it is Omar’s number, I told him ..is not your business, please give me Omar. Who ever has Omar phone was in the street because I can hear cars honking in a busy street. He asked me if I speak arabic and told him no..
I asked him if he just got this number, because that was Omar number, for a moment I thought that Omar changed his number, this men told me, NO, there is no Omar in here..and he hung up..They answer many more times, but arabic speakers, finally after the 30 or 40 times re dials they turn the phone off, and is been off since then.
Omar Karem wants to denounce the actions of some security officers from the Minister of Interior that arrested him, beat him, threat him and took his personal belonging. Apparently without any authorization from the Minister of Interior. Mr. Karem, he is scare and do not want to present himself in the offices of the police to denounce the crime, for obvious reason. He is making a public denounce and demand the Minister of Interior to persecute these rogue officers and an apology and the return of his personal computer, mobil phone, passport and other important items that were in his suit case.
If the minister of interior Mr Fathi Hammad is taking responsibility for “other groups” that vandalize the offices of Reuter, CNN and the Japanese Outlet News NHK. The office of Mr Hammad should take responsibility for their security officers that have been harassing the citizens of Gaza and confiscating their cameras and phones.
Omar Karem is mad and frighten, he scare to walk the streets of Gaza. I would if I was him. I hope that when I visit Gaza, Palestine I don’t need to make any public complaints. I want to enjoy Gaza and take pictures, and talk to her people, without being harassed by “no one”.
I wonder if it is a crime to take pictures in Gaza? or Do you need a special permit to take pictures and upload them to the different social networks in the world? Also it is a crime to like Hamas, or to like Fatah, or AFLP? What ever the answer I hope Mr. Hammad give a respond to the thousands of Gaza Citizens that more and more are showing their like and dislikes in the streets of Gaza, demonstrating with permits and without permits. All they are asking is Palestine as One Nation.
and I know this story is not the only in Gaza and West Bank.
Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza, surprise visit?!
Posted On March 17, 2011 by Akashma Online News
By Marivel Guzman in Collaboration with Omar Karem
The situation in Gaza is looking hazily, after the set back for the people on March 15 for Reconciliation, and the steeps attacks from Israel, and Hamas the poorly handling of the situation on the date of March 15 that ended with arrests, broken bones and anger between the people, the mood is between sadness and disappointment.
The March 15 Date was sought from the youth and the most actives Palestinians that were hoping to mend the differences between the two factions; Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in West Bank. Neither of them raised to the occasion.
There are reports that Mahoumud Abbas the representative of the PA in West Bank and Internationally recognized figure for Palestine, will be visiting the besieged Gaza Strip. This came as a surprise for some that heard the news with disbelieve, they are afraid that Mahoumud Abbas will bring too much of his security forces and they engage in a violent clashes as have been seen in the past with many casualties from both sides.
Palestinian Authority is calling for September Elections, but being Gaza in a complete siege, the chances of wining any seats are slim, because Hamas is not allowed to travel to West Bank to make any kind of Political Campaign. We must wait to see what this visit will bring for Gaza. Besides being Hamas designated “Terrorist Organization” they will be no finance support for the campaign as it was in 2007, which Hamas run with the blessings of Israel and the US, no one understand why after winning the elections, US put Hamas in the “terrorist list”, worth to mention that the US has changed the definition of terrorism.
We hope that Israel does not use this encounter as a excuse to send its “Groups” to stir violence, it is known in Palestine that there are certain groups financed by Israel to send rockets to Israel and to charade violence acts, used them always very strategically to either get International support or to trash Hamas or PA.
The future of Gaza and West Bank is at Odds, after the first attempt of the people to bring their leaders to reconcile their differences and work as one force. The youth of Gaza and West Bank won’t lose the hope and still planing more marches to bring their leaders to work together for a United Palestine.
A question remain; Will Abbas be allowed to cross the Eretz Crossing, between West Bank and Gaza, but controlled by Israel, or he will be forced to travel out from Jordan and take a plane to Egypt? Lucky him, that Egyptian authorities just lift the ban for Palestinians to travel across their territory to cross to Gaza.
With all the turmoil in Gaza, the continuous attacks from Israel, and the sequels of the Egyptian Revolution where the basic products double in prices, the population is not in a position to prepare a welcome party.
Unity March 15 a date to remember
Posted on March 15, 2011 by Omar Karem, from Gaza, edited by Marivel Guzman
Opinion
Gaza City, photo by Omar Karem
Thanks to all Palestinians that turned out today for the great March 15 March that markes the beginning to demand for a united Palestine.
The protesters were oppressed by the government forces. Was a little set back but the battle is not lost.
The youth, the women, the men, came in big numbers to demand unity and they will come out again; tomorrow, next week, until unity is achieved.
Battles are not easy to win said Leila Khaled, the Palestinian heroine that fought with Yosef Arafat during the 70s. She will tell you is not easy.
Today was a great day for Palestine, no matter what the outcome, it is a change, for first time lots of women are taking charge of the affairs of their land. Thousands of women were mixed with the crowd of men.
They know they must not be afraid, they are all Palestinians. Hamas, AFLP,FATAH, every one no matter the party they follow, they are all Palestinians, we are all Palestinians.
One Palestine Nation united to fight against the common enemy, ‘The Occupier’, ‘The IOF’ ,’Zionism’,’Ignorance’,’Division,’ those are the real enemies of the people.
Gaza City, photo by Omar Karem
Today the turn of events are only a show of the government to exercise power over the people, “Intimidation won’t work with us,” said a Palestinian, “We are feed up with Israel, even without uniform we know them, they can beat us and incarcerated us, but we wont stop,” he said.
They (Palestinian police) need to stop and unite with us. This fight is not against our government, it is against the division.
The security forces of Gaza are shooting to the air, shooting to the feet of the crowd. The government is afraid, of course they are afraid. Every government should be afraid of its people not the other way around. They need to prove themselves worthy to stay in power and if they have not done it the people is speaking loudly and demonstrating in the street and demanding unity.
It is not going to be easy for Hamas or the PA to contain the discontent because now we know that the power is with ourselves. If tomorrow, we all come to the streets, they won’t be enough bullets, or sticks to scare us. Today we celebrate that we can gather together, I don’t see it as a defeat to the people, No..it is a lesson, for us, for the government, to take notice that the actions are all recorded in history in our land. We must continue to work together to bring us as one Nation, we won’t stop.
We Palestinians are resolved to bring Palestine Unity.
“To really respond to the practices of the occupation, there should be unity behind the leadership that can address the world with one voice, to once and for all end the occupation and establish a Palestinian State as a strategic option for peace” – Issam Samour-Coordinator of Christian Relieve in Gaza, Palestine
The day’s events both exposed Palestinian divisions and underscored the popular desire for political reconciliation between Gaza, controlled by Hamas, and the West Bank, controlled by the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas amd his Fatah party. -The New York Times
Naji Shurrab, a political science professor at Al Azhar University in Gaza, which is unofficially affiliated with Fatah, said on Tuesday that ending the Fatah-Hamas split was beyond the capacity of the youths to correct. “The division is like cancer; the later you are in treating it, the more it spreads,” he said. –New York Times
The main stream media is ready to blame the set backs of the youth of Palestine on the people. They are mute when Israel is bombing our cities or killing us but as soon as the occasion arise they are ready to make headlines. We should ignore them all along, until they bring us the Truth.
We could feel the joy in the last few days in Palestine, all the videos that we shot in Palestine, people in the streets talking about March 15, Unity Day, Reconciliation day. It euphoria was overwhelming, the talks of a nation ready to emerge.
The people is what it make the nation not the leaders. Palestine is One, One land. The Holy Land is Only one. “We the People” make it.
Please stop the fights, come with us, all the fathers, and sons, that work for the respective governments, see us we are you, you are us. We are Palestine.
Palestinian youth at the Unity March photo by Omar Karem
Abu Yazan and other youth leaders, however, insist that unity is required to effectively resist the occupation and that political reform would significantly improve quality of life in the meantime. The slogan for the March 15 event is “End the division. One people against zionism.”
Ali Abdul Bari, a 24-year-old leader of Esha (Wake Up), a liberal, secular group devoted to promoting human rights, tells a story to illustrate just how deep the divide is. His group posted a sign demanding elections near the destroyed Palestinian Parliament building in downtown Gaza City. It was removed by Hamas 90 minutes later, despite the permit they had obtained. Later, many group members were interrogated or had their backgrounds checked. Pam Bailey
We must have high hopes that this movement wont stop, that today was a minor set back, but tomorrow a new day will come, bringing hopes. Specially that we will be commemorating Rachel Corrie day.
Come tomorrow March 16 to the streets to remember her memory, her martyrdom, we will celebrate her life, praise her memory for her sacrifice to our land.
Rachel Corrie
Please come with no banners, no flags, no colors, security forces please do not give bad image to the world. Do not copy the practices of Israel, we are tired of repression and oppression. Support us, in the new Palestine Nation that we all try to build.
Tomorrow is a new day, to rectify the errors, to take lessons of the past. Inshallah
Laila Khaled-Palestinian Resistance Hero-March 8 Internation Woman’s Day
Posted on March 8, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
from original posted by Thee *FREE ARAB VOICE* February 2, 1999
Leila Khaled (also Layla Khalid), long-time activist and Central Committee member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was born on April 9, 1944 in Haifa, Palestine. Her family left Haifa as refugees to Lebanon on April 13 1948, just before the State of Israel was established
In this issue of the Free Arab Voice we interview Laila Khaled.
Laila Khaled is a Palestinian Arab woman, an activist, fighter, and a leader that has become now a familiar part of the Palestinian psyche. She turned almost overnight from another refugee in Lebanon into an unfurled Palestinian flag. Unlike others who folded their flags though, she remains as true to the faith today as when she was fifteen, only smarter. Understanding what she has to say is tantamount to understanding what many Palestinians have to say.
We will not rain on her parade. She will introduce herself by herself.
[This interview was conducted for the Free Arab Voice (FAV) by Ibrahim Alloush ].
Introduction:
FAV: Welcome Laila Khaled. Would you like in the beginning to introduce us briefly to yourself: your position in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), the Palestinian Woman’s Union, and the Palestinian revolution?
Laila: I’m a Palestinian woman of Lebanese origin, my belonging is Arab, and hence my belonging is Palestinian. I joined the Arab Nationalist Movement early, early with respect to me, cause I was barely 15 years old then.
I moved to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine since its inception in 1967, and continue to be with them until today.
I was a member of the Union of Palestinian students, in the Administrative Committee, when I was still a student in the American University of Beirut in 1963. In 1974, I became a member in the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Woman’s Union. Also I’ve been a delegate in the Palestinian National Council [parliament] since 1979. FAV: What’s your official position in the PFLP?
Laila: I’m a member in the Leadership Council of the PFLP. “Who Are the Palestinians?”:
FAV: We’re not going to well long on that military operation you partook in, and which drew fame and glory. We have surpassed that stage in a sense. We’re in a different stage now, perhaps even at your own personal level. Would you give us a quick glimpse though about that operation so our younger readers may get an idea about what happened then? When exactly, and what was your role in it?
Laila: It was one of the operations undertaken by the PFLP to hijack airplanes. I was the first woman to participate in one, but the PFLP had done a few before. One of those was the hijacking of an El Al flight from Rome to Algeria. The PFLP took this path under the motto of “Going after the Enemy Everywhere”, as one of the tactics or phases of the armed struggle. The main goal behind these operations was to pose a big question to the world: who are the Palestinians? At the time Palestinians were being treated merely as refugees who may need humanitarian aid. So we got showered with tents, UNRWA programs, and so forth!
The other goal behind these operations was to release our political prisoners from “Israeli” jails. From 1968 until 1970, the PFLP performed operations abroad to achieve those two goals. But having posed the question of who are the Palestinians, the answer was not in the final analysis to be answered by the operations themselves but by the Palestinian revolution. There was now a big commotion. People all over the world were asking who those were who were hijacking airplanes and what they wanted.
Regarding the second objective of releasing prisoners, we succeeded in that respect partially. Had we had a liberated base from whence we could have held planes and passengers, and from whence we could have exchanged and negotiated, we could have succeeded much more. The Arab regimes had a clear position of not supporting us, and of compromising us as needed to white wash any affiliation with us.
I participated in two of these operations. One was the hijacking a TWA that Isaac Rabin was scheduled to be on. At the time he was the “Israeli” Ambassador in the U.S. That flight was supposed to go through Rome. We boarded the plane there, and re-directed the plane to Damascus, Syria. Unfortunately however, Rabin was not on board!
FAV: When was this?
Laila: This was in August 1969.
FAV: What happened after you came to Damascus?
Laila: When we came to Damascus, the airport we landed in was still not in use so we inaugurated it. We blew up the cockpit.
FAV: None of the passengers were hurt though!
Laila: No, no, not at all! That was made very clear throughout. We had strict directives not to hurt any passengers or members of the crew at all. Only in the case of clear self-defense, we were told, will you repel anyone who attacks you.
FAV: So you released the passengers upon arrival to Damascus?
Laila: Immediately. We told them to get off calmly, and showed them how to do it safely. Then we handed ourselves over to the authorities. We said we admit having done this, and would like to tell you why we did what we did.
FAV: The second operation you took part in?
Laila: The second one was an El Al plane. Now that’s a different story because it’s an El Al! An “Israeli” thing per se! That flight was carrying Ahron Yarev, the head of “Israeli” Military Intelligence at the time. We boarded that flight in Amesterdam. It was supposed to be headed to New York, but we were going to turn it back east. We had just inaugurated an airport near Amman, Jordan, that became known as the Airport of the Revolution where we had held three planes there already, and we were going to bring our El Al plane there too. But the pilot took us to London instead, and our comrade from Nicaragua, Patrick Aurguillo, was killed there.
FAV: What went wrong?
Laila: What went wrong was that we were to be four doing this, but only two of us, Patrick and me, managed to get on board. Because Yarev had bodyguards too we simply got outnumbered and outgunned. The route the plane took was not the one we thought they would. Landing in London was totally unexpected. We bet that they won’t come near us. I was in charge of the operation and had two hand grenades. I didn’t think they would ever dare to come near me, but it seems that “Israelis” think lightly of dying as well.
They attacked the two of us, and managed to kill Patrick savagely. I wasn’t shot, but tackled and beaten. Media reports later indicated that the body of the plane was riddled with eighty bullet holes. Patrick had one handgun and I had two grenades, so guess who was doing most of the shooting?
FAV: Then?
Laila: The Brits took me. The very following day however a Palestinian guy from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, hijacked a BOAC plane to Beirut because he couldn’t handle the thought of me getting arrested. He requested to talk to the PFLP when he got to Beirut International Airport, and asked them where he should go with the plane. The pilot didn’t know how to get to the Airport of the Revolution because it wasn’t in the official charts. So, he was given directions. Then I was released in exchange, along with a couple of other comrades, after 28 days in custody. All this also raised the political question worldwide of who we were and what we sought.
A Critical Evaluation:
FAV: How do you respond to those who say that this particular type of operations did not help out very much, but had in fact hurt the Palestinian cause? Sure we got the attention of the world, but it was perhaps negative attention, the kind that’s not very good for us?
Laila: There’s an intrinsic difference between armed struggle as one of the main strategies to overcome the enemy, and these transient tactics which we employed only during a very brief period. On the internal Palestinian level, other groups condemned our earlier tactics only to end up adopting them after we abandoned them totally in 1970, as Fatah did with the “Black September” organization! So these were short-run tactical measures that can and should easily be given up if needed.
Anyway, hijacking planes was not the only type of overseas operations we engaged in. In 1972 for example, the PFLP hit the oil tanker Coral Sea which was clandestinely carrying Arab oil & gas (butane), from one of the Gulf states, to “Israel”. It took about a year of careful surveillance and planning to ascertain the route and method by which Arab oil went to “Israel”. But nobody likes to talk about this.
FAV: Where did this happen?
Laila: The Red Sea. Let me also add here that this operation cost “Israel” a great deal in terms of maintaining tight security. From that point on, every tanker that went out to sea had to have military escort, by planes sometimes. Protecting their energy supplies became a real pain.
FAV: So do you call now for resuming this type of operations?
Laila: Now circumstances are different. Every act has to serve a political end. Hijacking airplanes is NOT in our best interest today. Anyway, we in the PFLP totally quit that after the Central Committee took a resolution to that effect in 1970. In this regard I would like to mention, with great admiration and respect, the contributions of the martyr Wadi3 Haddad, who is also one of the founders of the Arab Nationalist Movement. I owe this man most for having taught me how to love Palestine.
FAV: But you continue to be today for the continuation of the armed struggle to liberate Palestine?
Laila: There is a simple and clear formula that I follow which doesn’t require much theorizing. Since there is still today an enemy that raped and cast us out of our land, there is no language to communicate with him but that which he understands best. He talks the language of terror, so we have a legitimate right to resist. History, reality, and the whole world concede the people’s right to resist occupation. That’s all there’s to it.
The Calculus of War and Peace:
FAV: Some say Arafat obtained more for the Palestinian people, with his readiness to condemn and cooperate against Palestinian “terrorism”, than what we have obtained from decades of operations which cost us tens of thousands of martyrs, injured, prisoners, not to mention international public opinion. How would you respond to that?
Laila: Arafat lost and made us lose with him.
FAV: How come? Some say he obtained a small piece that could later become the nucleus of a Palestinian state? Can’t this become a foothold from whence we may liberate the rest? Didn’t he bring back about forty thousand Palestinians with him from Tunisia?
Laila: Arafat as the epitome of a stratum of leaders of the Palestinian movement that embraces the same way of thinking, has chosen to favor its personal interests over those of the people. Consequently they deemed their own return to Palestine, under humiliating conditions, synonymous with the “right of return”.
We have in Palestine today about three million Palestinians. These have conducted one of the greatest uprisings in the world. Their problem was never the right of return for Arafat and a small group with him. Our problem has always been that we are a people that have had its land occupied and that was forcibly evicted from that land.
The Zionists built their state on our land. Our problem can be summarized in two points:
1) sovereignty over the land,
2) the return of refugees.
This is the essence of the Palestinian problem. Now let’s see what Arafat did. Arafat got the legitimacy to speak for Palestinians from the blood of our martyrs, and from our suffering. He got legitimacy because he adopted initially the strategy of armed struggle. Then he stopped halfway. When this stratum got some perks and privileges, they balked on the notion of resistance. Our leadership was spoiled into submission, among other things. They liked hotels, travel, official receptions at their honor and what have you too much. But at the same time they were selling their own selves out.
Those selling themselves out can’t be said to be “obtaining” anything for their people, can they now? It’s true that “Israel” re-deployed its forces in this alleged solution. But even before that was done, Arafat had to sign on to the enemy’s right to exist on our land. That is a negation of the all the precepts of Palestinian struggle.
The PFLP’s Stand on the Existence of “Israel”:
FAV: But some claim that the PFLP has shifted, and is no longer totally opposed to the principle of “Israel’s” right to exist if that meant a sovereign Palestinian mini-state on the side. Is that true?
Laila: Let’s judge the PFLP on the basis of its documents, and I’m part of the PFLP. When we say that we agreed to the program of Palestinian national consensus:
1) the right of return,
2) self-determination, and
3)The Palestinian state. That means a Palestinian state on the land occupied in 1967, not Haifa. But here are our documents, and our strategy, and here’s the Palestinian National Charter that Arafat compromised. They all talk of liberating Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
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FAV: So this is what the PFLP remains formally committed to today?
Laila: Of course. We haven’t changed. We believe in liberation in stages, but we believe in our historical right to all of Palestine as well.
Laila Khaled Prevented from Flying in December to the Palestinian Conference in Damascus:
FAV: With respect to the Palestinian National Charter, there were reports that you were on a plane headed from Amman to Damascus earlier in December 1998, when you were asked to get off the plane right before take-off by Jordanian authorities.
What happened there?
Did they get nightmares from the mere thought of Laila Khaled on a plane?
Was it a matter of flashbacks from the sixties or is it more complicated than that?
Laila: I still travel by airplane by the way : ) : ) I don’t frighten anyone there. I was actually headed for Beirut, not Damascus, to participate in the Second Arab meeting for the post-Peking Women’s conference. No body told me why I was not allowed to fly that day, but I think they expected me to be going to the Palestinian opposition meeting in Damascus that convened on the 12th of December to re-endorse the Palestinian National Charter.
But in fact the real reason is Wye River, and the security deals that took place behind the scenes between the security apparatuses in Jordan and “Israel”. Laila Khaled is a Palestinian activist, and for her to travel and express her views here and there just doesn’t fly very well with the authorities. So they harass me as a member in the Palestinian opposition, not as an individual. But eventually, I traveled again later on, and nobody stopped me
FAV: So what if they thought you were going to participate in the opposition conference in Damascus? What’s their beef?
Laila: I wasn’t the only one prevented from going to Damascus last December. All the delegates headed to that opposition Conference from Jordan were intercepted and turned back. Specifically, 53 delegates were turned back. I left several days before the conference date because I was going to attend another in Beirut, then go to the conference in Damascus.
FAV: But why? What’s the point of preventing you and those people from attending the conference in Damascus?
Laila: The point as expressed rather comically by the Jordanian Minister of the Interior, Nayef al Qadi, was that those 53 delegates were going to Syria to say stuff that was “contrary to the security of Jordan”.
The response to that is straight forward:
The Palestinian opposition was simply going there to discuss its position and options after Arafat went ahead with the annulment of the Palestinian National Charter. That’s all. But let’s not forget I live in a state that has signed an agreement with “Israel” in Wadi Arabah. This agreement, or maybe one of its secret appendices, entailed that the opposition be oppressed, as long as that is done with all the “democratic means” available to the system!
[We will later go back and discuss in depth with Laila Khaled’s the Peking Woman’s Conference and her position on the question of Woman’s Liberation. There’s about 30 minutes of tape here that FAV will reproduce separately due to the extreme importance and the independent nature of that subject- FAV].
Future Strategies for Palestinian Action:
FAV The position you occupy now Laila Khaled in the Palestinian memory and the Palestinian conscience forces us to pose all the hardest questions to you. The Palestinian activism has reached a predicament at this point as is evident.
Can we say that the old forms of struggle have fallen?
Is there a need for new forms to replace them? If so, what are some of the features of these new forms? In short what is a good strategy for Palestinian action for the coming period?
What is to be done? Whence do we begin?
Laila: You posed the question of whence do we begin, so let me say here that we’re not starting out from zero. Every time a new leadership arrives at the scene, it doesn’t study the phase preceding it, and assumes that history began with it. Since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, we’ve had a series of uprisings and leaders in Palestine, culminating in a major armed revolt under the leadership of the Qassam in 1936.
Then there was Abdul-Qader al Husseini in 1948, then el Hajj Amin, and in the sixties the present PLO leadership emerged. We need to study therefore our history and draw hard lessons as much as we need to thoroughly evaluate the previous phase of the Palestinian struggle.
We may have entered a new phase though, characterized by a political settlement in favor of the enemy. The cornerstones of Palestinian activism have been upturned. The precept that the Zionist enemy is occupying our land has been clouded with false rhetoric about peace. The notion of armed struggle has been distorted as well by those who signed shameful agreements, like Arafat and his group.
We have to study thus the previous phase in a comprehensive and careful manner. We have to examine where we hit and where we missed. The great achievement the Palestinian people has perhaps been the Palestinian national identity. We learned how to resist, but the strategies of action now will have to be different from the ones we adopted before. The notion of armed struggle itself though remains necessarily constant because this enemy has not changed its nature.
This enemy does not seek peace. It is still racist, expansionist, and violent.
FAV: What is it that should change then?
Laila: Only the mechanisms have to change, not the objectives. The strategy of armed struggle has to carry on from one generation to the next. It has to remain a historical struggle on all fronts. The military front is not currently open, while the usual measures like demolishing homes, confiscating land, arresting activists, air raiding south Lebanon, and killing civilians continue. We still have Palestinian and Lebanese funerals daily. This means the enemy does not understand any other language.
FAV: This is regarding the objectives of the Palestinian action. How do we get there?
Laila: The objectives of the PLO have not been achieved, including the right of return, self-determination, and the Palestinian state. Some say we still have to uphold those betrayed objectives, and I’m one of those. The problem now is that this [Palestinian] opposition, which is made up of Islamic, nationalist, and leftist components IS NOT UNITED IN ONE PROGRAM OF ACTION.
We don’t have to unite them ideologically. They do have to find a way however to deal jointly with the two most important current issues of Palestinian struggle:
First, how to confront and escalate the fight against the occupation, and second how to tackle the contradiction with the limited self-rule authority of Arafat whose main task is to provide security for the occupation, and to oppress Palestinians. We can’t adopt the same approach in dealing with the two. I don’t think twice about the legitimacy of resisting the occupation by all means necessary.
FAV: How do you respond to people like Edward Said and Azmi Bshara who insinuate sometimes that we need new approaches to Palestinian activism, for example by opening up Palestinian organizations to “Israelis” who recognize “Israel’s” right to exist, yet support Palestinian rights!
Laila: We have to look at the tasks of every concentration of Palestinians in the light of its own circumstances. We have a goal that unites us all, which is to liberate Palestine. But there’s about a million Palestinians right now living in the land occupied in 1948. Those will have tasks that are different from the ones to be addressed by the Palestinians of Lebanon.
In the former, the Palestinian struggle focuses on removing the discrimination they suffer under “Israel”. But in Rou7ah and Um Es-sa7ali when “Israelis” tried to confiscate more land and to demolish homes a while back, the reaction of the Palestinians of 1948 made the Shin Bet report to the “Israeli” government that after fifty years of “Israeli” rule, nationalist feelings among the Arabs of “Israel”, as they call them, are on the rise.
It’s true there are a couple there that call themselves “Israelis”, but the Palestinians of 1948 have overall preserved their Palestinian Arab national identity. Within the framework of the overall objective, these people have the local objective of achieving equality before the law in “Israel”…
FAV: But we can’t generalize the tasks of the Palestinians of 1948 to other Palestinians?
Laila: Yes, that part of our people will have different local objectives because it has different local circumstances. We are a dispersed people you know. Those in the West Bank and Gaza will have different tasks as well.
FAV: So the idea of including “Israelis” in our struggle applies only to the Palestinians of 1948, right?
Laila: No, no, no! Neither including nor excluding, no! I’m talking about something totally different. I’m talking about a relevant Palestinian program for action. I said there are general Palestinian objectives for all Palestinians, and then there are particular Palestinian objectives specific to the local circumstances for each concentration of Palestinians. For example, what is right now the main concern of a Palestinian in Lebanon who is not allowed to work? S/He wants to make a living. But even s/he is trying to observe the general objective of preserving his Palestinian national identity.
He remains steadfast in the refugee camp as a Palestinian under very harsh conditions. His tasks however will have to be different from those of a Palestinian in Gaza, who has to deal with persecution by Arafat’s PNA, and the Zionist occupation. Local strategies have to be decided locally, not imposed from without. There has to be coordination though between the local parts so each complements the other.
FAV: But where do the “Israelis” who allegedly support our rights fit into all this? Some say that our main task on the general level now should be to intensify our efforts amongst Americans and “Israelis”. How do you respond to that?
Laila: Look, there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in North America. The main task of that group is to publicize the Palestinian cause and win support. They also have the additional task of not forgetting, and letting their kids forget who they are and where they came from.
They should think about coming back in the long-run. It’s high-time we learned from our enemies, isn’t it? But let’s also not forget here that this is part of the overall struggle. The children of the West and Gaza didn’t peddle theories about winning over the West in the uprising. They peddled stones. And they won the support of the world nevertheless. The essential thing is to not forget that the things that created the conflict with Zionists are still there. They’re not gone. The land is still occupied and the people are still dispersed.
That’s why we revolted. These agreements are like some ash over the coals. Pour a little gasoline and we revolt again. The gasoline is how to make our local tasks complement each other. The axis of the combined work should be to hit the enemy on the head through and through. They only withdrew from south Lebanon because they were shipping back too many coffins. So coffins is what they understand. And we should make no apologies here because our own graveyards are full. Before preachers try to teach you about the humanity of our enemy, teach them about how we have been dehumanized. They said: “The Palestinians don’t exist”! We have been subjugated to a process of extinction here. Now they’re even talking about making genes-smart bombs that kill only Arabs. These people are not about coexistence.
They still have their kids sing in Kindergarten: this bank of the Jordan River is ours, and the other one too! Why are you asking us to change?
FAV: ..and the “Israelis” that support our struggle!
Laila: This is something that concerns the Palestinians of 1948. It is not a task on the national level, except insofar as it contributes to flaming differences within “Israeli” society, and weakens the occupation. Full stop. But I don’t tell our Palestinian masses there to go to the booth to vote for Labor or Meretz. These still say our land is theirs.
I CHALLENGE ANY OF THE PARTIES THAT CLAIM TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN RIGHTS IN ‘ISRAEL’ TO SAY THAT JERUSALEM IS OURS. None of them do. So what the heck? We don’t need more empty slogans from “Israelis” who claim to be supporting us. The United Nations resolution that recognized “Israel” tied that recognition to the return of refugees. But that was not observed because in this jungle the strong imposes its code. Let those “Israelis” who say they support us call for our return. Look, if you want to note with appreciation a large demonstration by “Peace Now”, fine. But don’t fantasize.
FAV: Are you willing to share Jerusalem?
Laila: No way and never. I want to go back to Haifa where I was born. What are you talking about?
—————————————————————————————————————–
We can not negate that the PLO headed by Yasef Arafat put Palestine in the Map again, if it was not for him the Palestinian Plight could have been ignored maybe until now. Even if we did not like the methods used by the PLO was the only way that Israel and her supporters were going to negotiate with him. And even if we disagree with the agreements Yassef Arafat was forced to accept we need to understand the circumstances of those agreements.
Not everything was done because personal preferences of Yassef Arafat, most of the documents that he signed were the less of the evils. I do not doubt for one moment that when Yassef enter the United Nations conference he have in his mind to sell Palestinian Identity. For the contrary he enter the conference with his head high and his rifle by his side. And after that day the whole world started speaking about Palestine again.
Even thought after the years the light shed on Palestine will diminish again, the Resistance took form, because the PLO brought energy to the old struggle. We can not deny the power that Yasser Arafat had and have in the young Palestinians. He never wanted divisions, he always spoke as Palestine as one nation, and that we also own to him and his group.
Our woman hero Laila Khaled fought along with Yasser Arafat and she knew the situation, and the agreements in its time, she speaks of her disapproval in some of the issues, I wonder if she have had the power of the pen, if another Palestine have resulted.
We can never underestimate the power of woman intuition. That is another story.
NABLUS CITY
Posted on March 01, 2011by Omar Karem
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دينة نابلس
مدينة كنعانية عربية ، حيث يعود تاريخها إلى 9000 سنة . وكان اسمها ” شكيم” بمعنى المنكب أو الكتف ، وذكرتها رسائل تل العمارنة باسم (SKAKMI ) وموقع بلدة “شكيم” من أجمل مواقع مدن فلسطين فقد أقيمت على واد لا يزيد عرضه عن ميل واحد وبيت جبلي ” عيبال وجرزيم ” المرتفعين ، حيث تكسوهما الكروم وبساتين الزيتون ، والينابيع الكثيرة التي تروي جنائن المدينة ، هذا الموقع الجميل جعل من الصعب تحصينها وجعلها أقل قدرة على الدفاع . قد واجهت نابلس كغيرها من المدن الفلسطينية مراحل الغزو المختلفة عبر التاريخ ، وفتحها عمر بن العاص بعد فتح غزة . أقدم من سكن ” شكيم ” من العرب هم الحويون والجرزيون ” .
وإذا كانت فلسطين هي قلب الوطن العربي لربطها شماله بجنوبه فإن نابل هي قلب فلسطين لربطها شمالها بجنوبها ، وهي تتمتع بموقع جغرافي هام ، فهي تتوسط إقليم المرتفعات الجبلية الفلسطينية ، وتعتبر جبال نابلس حلقة في سلسلة المدن الجبلية الممتدة من الشمال إلى الجنوب ، وهي تقع على مفترق طرق رئيسية تمتد من العفولة وجنين شمالا حتى الخليل جنوبا ، ومن طولكرم غربا حتى جسر دامية شرقا ، وتبعد مدينة نابلس عن القدس 69 كم وتربطها بمدنها وقراها شبكة جيدة من الطرق .
ومدينة نابلس هي مركز قضاء يحمل اسمها (قضاء نابلس) والذي يضم إضافة إليها 130 قرية كبيرة وصغيرة ، ويحد قضاء نابلس من الشمال قضائي جنين وبيسان ، ومن الجنوب أقضية القدس ورام الله والرملة ، ومن الشرق نهر الأردن ومن الغرب قضاء طولكرم ، وتبلغ مساحة قضاء نابلس (1591718) كم2 ، وذلك حسب تقدير عام 1945 ، أما بعد نكبة 1948 فقد بلغت مساحته (1584)كم2 ، أما عدد سكان القضاء فقـد بلغت عام 1922
(56965) نسمة وعام 1945 حوالي (89200) نسمة . أما مدينة نابلس فقد بلغت مساحة أراضيها 8365 دونما وهي ترتفع عن مستوى سطح البحر 500م . أما عدد السكان فقد بلغوا عام 1922 (15947) نسمة وعام 1945 حوالي (23250) نسمة وبعد نكسة حزيران 1967 فقد انخفض عددهم بسبب نزوح أعداد كبيرة إاى الأردن ، حيث بلغ عدد السكان حوالي 44 ألف نسمة أما في 1997 فقد بلغوا حسب الاحصاء الفلسطيني حوالي (261377) نسمة . ومدينة نابلس تتكون من قسمين ، البلدة القديمة والتي تقوم في وسط المدينة والمعروفة بأزقتها على الأطراف وعلى سفوح جبلي عيبال وجرزيم . ومدينة نابلس تمثل مركزا اقتصاديا هاما ، حيث اشتهرت بصناعة النسيج والجلود والكيماويات والصابون والصناعات المعدنية . وهي عامرة بمدارسها وماساجدها الكثيرة .
وقد سميت جبال نابلس ” جبال النار ” وذلك لما أبداه أهالي نابلس من ضروب البطولة والبسالة دفاعا عن الأرض والحق ، وذلك في كافة الثورات والإضرابات والمظاهرات التي عمت البلاد منذ عشرنيات هذا القرن لمواجهة الاحتلالين البريطاني والصهيوني ، شـأنها بذلك شأن كل المدن والقرى الفلسطينية . وبعد احتلالها عام 1967 فقد تعرضت مثل كل مدن الوطن الفلسطيني إلى هجمة استيطانية شرسة حيث أقيمت العديد من المستعمرات حولها .
ARYAHAA CITY
مدينة أريحا
مدينة كنعانية عربية ، وتعتبر أقدم مدينة في العالم اكتشفت حتى الآن ، حيث يرجع تاريخها إلى أكثر من (7000) سنة ق. م . وموضعها القديم ” تل السلطان ” والذي يقع على نحو 2 كم للشمال الغربي من أريحا .
وكلمة ” أريحا ” تعني عند الكنعانيين القمر وهي مشتقة من فعل ” يرحو ” واليرح ” في لغة جنوب الجزيرة العربية تعني الشهر أو القمر وفي السريانية تعني الرائحة أو الأريج ريحه وفي التوراة هي أقدم مدينة معروفة .
جددها ووسعها هيرودس الكبير وأقام فيها القصور والحدائق وأنشأ جنوبها القلاع الحصينة لحماية المدينة والدفاع عنها ، وقد خربي فيما بعد ولم يبق منها سوى الأنقاض .
أعاد الرومان يناءها على وادي القلط في عهد الامبراطور قسطنطين الكبير ، وأقيم في ضواحيها الكنائس والأديرة . وقد ازدهرت أريحا وتقدمت في عهد البيزنطيين ، حتى دخلها العرب في الفتح الإسلامي ، وكانت أهم مدينة زراعية في غور الأردن ، ومحاطة بالنخيل والموز وقصب السكر .
ثم قل شان أريحا ، ولم تعد سوى قرية صغيرة ، وظلت كذلك حتى مطلع القرن العشرين ، وفي العهد العثماني ارتفعت مكانتها من قرية إلى ناحية ، وذلك عام 1908 ، وتحولت من ناحية إلى مركز قضاء يحمل اسمها في العهد البريطاني ، ثم ألغي قضاء أريحا وقضاء بيت لحم عام 1944 وضما إلى قضاء القدس ، وبعد نكبة 1948 عادت أريحا مركزا للقضاء مرة أخرى .
وتقوم أريحا اليوم على هضبة منبسطة وسط واحة خصبة تكثر فيها الأشجار والمساه وتنخفض عن مستوى سطح البحر 276م وترتبط حاليا مع غور الألردن والضفتين الشرقية والغربية بشبكة طرق معبدة ، وهي تقع على الطريق الرئيسية بين القدس والعوز ، وتبعد عن القدس حوالي 37 كم شرقا ، وتعتبر البوابة الشرقية لفلسطين .
تبلغ مساحة قضاء أريحا حوالي 3407كم2 أما مساحة أراضي مدينة أريحا فقد بلغت حوالي 38481 دونما ، وبلغ عدد سكانها عام 1922 (1039) نسمـــة ، وعام 1945 قــــــدروا (3010) نسمة ، وعام 1961 (10166) نسمة . ومناخ أريحا مناخ مداري صحراوي حيث ارتفاع درجة الحرارة معظم شهور السنة وقلة الأمطار وقلما يحدث الصقيع أو سقوط الثلوج فيها ، دافئة شتاء مما يجعلها من أفضل الأماكن للتشتية ويؤمها كثير من الناس لهذا الغرض إضافة إلى السياح للإطلاع على آثارها والتمتع بدفئها .
وقد عرفت أريحا منذ القدم بخصوبة تربتها ووفرة مياهها وقد حافظت على شهرتها الزراعية . وعرفت أريحا منذ القدم كذلك بصناعة السكر وتصنيع التمر وصناعة الحصير ويوجد بها مصنعان للنسيج إضافة لصناعة المياه الغازية وتشميع الحمضيات والمفروشات والكبريت . وتشتهر أريحا بالأماكن السياحية ، ومن أهمها البحر الميت ، قصر هشام بن عبد الملك ، ودير قرنطل ، تل عين السلطان ، دير القديس يوحنا المعمران ، دير حجلة وغيرها
HISTORY PALESTINE YAFAA CITY IN 1948
Posted on March 01, 2011 by Omar Karem
مدينة يافا
مدينة عربية تقع على الساحل الشرقي للبحر المتوسط
وتُعتبر نافذة فلسطين الرئيسة على البحر المتوسط. وإحدى بواباتها الهامة. وقد كانت تلعب دوراً كبيراً وهاماً في ربط فلسطين بالعالم الخارجي. من حيث وقوعها كمحطة رئيسية تتلاقى فيها بضائع الشرق والغرب. وجسراً للقوافل التجارية. ويُعد ميناء يافا هو ميناء فلسطين الأول من حيث القِدم والأهمية التجارية والإقتصادية
تقع يافا على البحر الأبيض المتوسط. إلى الجنوب من مصب نهر العوجا. على بُعد 7كم. وإلى الشمال الغربي من مدينة القدس على بُعد 60كم. وكلمة يافا هي تحريف لكلمة (يافي) الكنعانية. وتعني جميلة. أطلق اليونانيون عليها اسم (جوبي). وذكرها الفرنجة باسم (جافا)
يُشكل تاريخ يافا تصويراً حيّاً لتاريخ فلسطين عبر العصور
فتاريخها يمتد إلى (4000 ق.م). بناها الكنعانيون. وكانت مملكة بحد ذاتها. وغزاها الفراعنة. والآشوريون. والبابليون. والفرس. واليونان. والرومان. ثم فتحها القائد الإسلامي عمرو بن العاص. وخضعت لكل الممالك الإسلامية. إلى أن احتلها الأتراك. ثم الانتداب البريطاني. وبعده نكبة 1948 واحتلال الصهاينة لها وتشريد غالبية سكانها
بلغت مساحة يافا حوالي 17510 دونمات
وضمت سبعة أحياء رئيسية هي : البلدة القديمة. حي المنشية. حي العجمي. حي ارشيد. حي النزهة. حي
الجبلية. وهي هريش (اهريش)
احتلت مدينة يافا مركزاً هاماً في التجارة الداخلية والخارجية بفضل وجود ميناؤها. كما قامت بها عدة صناعات أهمها: صناعة البلاط. والأسمنت. والسجائر. والورق والزجاج. وسكب الحديد. والملابس والنسيج. وكانت أيضاً مركزاً متقدماً في صيد الأسماك
وكانت مدينة يافا مركزاً للنشاط الثقافي والأدبي في فلسطين. حيث صدرت فيها معظم الصحف والمجلات الفلسطينية
وبلغت مدارس يافا قبل 1948 (47) مدرسة منها (17) للبنين. و(11) للبنات. و(19) مختلطة
وكان فيها أيضاً ستة أسواق رئيسية متنوعة وعامرة. وكان بها أربعة مستشفيات. وحوالي12 جامعاً عدا الجوامع المقامة في السكنات. وبها عشرة كنائس وثلاث أديرة
لعبت مدينة يافا دوراً مميزاً وريادياً في الحركة الوطنية ومقاومة المحتل البريطاني من جهة والصهاينة من جهة أخرى. فمنها انطلقت ثورة 1920 ومنها بدأ الإضراب التاريخي الذي عَمَّ البلاد كلها عام 1936. ودورها الفعّال في ثورة 1936. وقد شهدت يافا بعد قرار التقسيم معارك دامية بين المجاهدين وحامية يافا من جهة والصهاينة من جهة أخرى
وبعد سقوط المدينة واقتحامها من قبل الصهاينة في 15/5/1948 جمع الصهاينة أهالي يافا في حي العجمي. وأحاطوه بالأسلاك الشائكة. وجعلوا الخروج منه والد*** إليه بتصريح من الحكم الصهيوني
الخريطة
مدينة فلسطينية تقع على ساحل البحر المتوسط الى الجنوب من مصب نهر العوجا بنحو 7 أكيال على ارتفاع 35 متر عن سطح البحر…واسمها الحديث تحريف لكلمة ياف يالكنعانية بمعنى جميل وتقع قافا القديمة على التلة القائمة على مينائها..كتبتها بعض المصادر يافة بالتاء المربوطة وكتبتها مصار أخرى يافا بالألف وقد ينسب اليها باسم يافوني وتعتبر أقدم موانىء العالم..يعود بناؤها الى الكنعانيين الذين نزلوا البلاد منذ 4500 سنة وقد نزل يافا عام 825 قبل الميلاد النبي يونس ليركب منها سفينة قاصدا ترشيش وعندما قذفه الحوت نزل على الشاطىء الفلسطيني عن النبي يونس قرب أسدود أو عند تل يونس بين وبين ويافا..
فتحها عمرو بن العاص ويقال معاوية وصفها الشاري المقدسي سنة 380هـ فقال: ويافة على البحر صغيرة الا أنها خزانة فلسطين وفرضة الرملة عليها حصن منيع بأبواب محددة..وباب البحر كله حديد..وكانت يافا احدى المراكز التي يتبادل بها الأسرى..فتأتي اليها سفن الروم ومعهم أسارى المسلمين للبيع..كل ثلاثة بمائة دينار..والبرتقال في يافا وسهولها كشجرة الزيتون في منطقة القدس الجبلية..والبرتقال والليمون يرجعان بالأصل الى بلاد الهند..أتى بهما العرب الى عمان فالبصرة فبلاد الشام خلال القرن العاشر الميلادي..ونقلهما الصليبيون من عرب فلسطين..أما البرتقال الحلو فقد اكتشفه البرتغاليون في الهند وقيل لهم انه جاء من الصين..وكان الأترج والكباد يغرف في فلسطين في النصف الأول من العصور المسيحية..وبعد الحرب الأولى أخذ الفلسطينيون يزرعون أنواعا جديدة من الحمضيات وفي مقدمتها ليمون الجنة(الكريفوت)
أخذت يافا تنمو في النصف الثاني من القرن التاسع عشر..وأزيل السور وفي سنة 1886 م بوشر البناء في شمال البلدة فكان نواة حي المنشية وأقيمت بجوار الشيخ ابراهيم العجمي البيوت..فنما حي العجمي في جنوب يافا..بلغ عدد سكانها سنة 1945 م “66310 نسمة لم يبق بعد النكبة الا أربعة الاف عربي وفي سنة 1965 م بلغ السكان العرب عشرة الاف من أصل مائة ألف ساكن
وأحياء يافا: في البلدة القديمة..هي: الطابية(القلعة) والنقيب والمنشية في شمالها..وأرشيد والعجمي والجبلية وأهريش والنزهة وهناك أحياء تعرف باسم السكنات تقع بين بيارات البرتقال منها سكنة درويش وسكنة العراينة وسكنة أبو كبير..
في عام 1954 م ضمت يافا الى ضاحيتها السابقة تل أبيب واصبحتا تعرفان باسم تل أبيب يافو وأكثر العرب الباقين في المدينو يسكنون في حي العجمي…
AL NASARAA CITY
مدينة الناصرة
تقوم مدينة الناصرة فوق رقعة متوسطة الارتفاع داخل الجليل الأدنى وترتفع 400 متر عن سطح البحر و300 متر عن مستوى سهل مرج ابن عامر..وتحيط بالناصرة جبال مرتفعة هي جزء من جبال الجليل الأدنى وأهم الجبال المجاورة للناصرة جبل طابور..ويقد يسمى جبل الطور 588 متر ويبعد تسعة أكيال عن الناصرة..تكسوه أشجار السنديان والجوز..وتشير التقاليد المسيحية أن المسيح تجلى على هذا الجبل لطائفة من تلاميذه ولذلك أقيمت عليه الكنائس منذ القرون الأولى للمسيحية..وجبل الني سعين وذكره ياقوت باسم جبال الساعير وذكره النويري في نهاية الأرب..بأنه الجبل الذي ظهرت فيه نبوة عيسى..وجبل الدحي..جنوب الناصرة ويعلو 515 متر نسبة الى قرية الدحي..المدفنون بها دحية الكلبي..صاحب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم..وجبل السيخ ويرتفع 573 م والسيخ كلمة فارسية وهو العمود الذي يوضع فيه اللحم وأهم الينابيع المحيطة بها عين العذراء وعين القناة وعين أبو راس وعين القسطل وعين موسى..
ولم يرد للمدينة ذكر في المصادر قبل الانجيل..وقد استمدت الناصرة مكانتها لأنها مدينة السيد المسيح ومريم العذراء..ففيها ولدت واستوطنت مريم العذراء ويوسف النجار وفيها بشر الملك جبريل مرين بعيسى وفيها قضي المسيح عليه السلام ثلاثين سنة..فتح المدينة شرحبيل بن حسنة سنة 13 هـ وفي الحروب الصليبية بقيت بين أخذ ورد بين المسلمين والمسيحيين الى أن فتحها الظاهر بيبرس وهدم كنائسها وأديرتها..ثم احتلها الملك أدوارد الانجليزي في الحملة الصليبية التاسة والأخيرة سنة 670هـ ثم رجعت الى المسلمين على يد السلطان خليل بن قلاوون سنة 691هـ وظلت الناصرة في حال من الانحطاط مدة ثلاثة قرون بعد هذا التاريخ وقد اتوطنها المسلمون بعد طرد الفرنجة منها ولكن ظل الرهبان والحجاج المسيحيون يزورونها…ذكرها البكري في ” معجم ما استعجم” باسم “نصورية” بفتح الأول وضم الثاني قال: واليها تنسب النصرانية..وقيل اسمها:”ناصرت” بسكون التاء المفتوحة..وقيل ناصرت بالتاء المفتوحة وقيل ناصرة بالتاء المربوطة أما ياقوت الحموي فذكرها باسم الناصرة..وهي مدينة لها مكانة كبيرة في نفوس المسيحيين..وأِشهر كنائسها كنيسة بشارة..التي كانت تؤلف جزءا كبيرا من مسكن مريم العذراء..وقد توالت على هذه الكنيسة أحداث وتداولها الهدم والترميم الى أن بنيت البناء الأخير الفني الطراز سنة 1969م
ومن كنائسها أيضا كنيسة العيالة المسيحية..على بيت وحانوت يوسف النجار وتسمى كنيسة القديس يوسف وهي على بعد 150 متر شمال كنيسة بشارة وكنيسة القديس جبرائيل أو البشارة للروم الأرثوذكس على بعد 800 متر من كنيسة البشارة ودعيت بهذا الاسم لأنه ماءها يجري منعين الناصرة التي كانت مريم تردها كسائر نساء القرية وربما بشرها الملاك بميلاد عيسى عند هذا الحين..بلغ عدد سكان الناصرة سنة 1945م 14200 عربي..وفي سنة 1965م كان بها 25 الف عربي ومن عائلاتها المسلمة دار البيطار..والزعبية..وهما فرعان..دار حمودة..ودار عبيد..ثم حمولة الزيدانة ينسبون الى زيدان جد ظاهر العمر ودار الصفدي ودار عون ودار الفاهوم ودار قبطان والهوارة ودار يزبط أو اليزابكة وعائلة حمادة التي ظهر منها الكتاب والأدباء..أما سكان الناصرة من المسيحيين فأصلهم من لبنان أو حوران ومن عائلاتهم دار أبو جابر وأبو جوهر وأبو العسل ودار أمطانس أبو علي ودار البولس ودار الأورفلي ودار الأشقر ودار أصيلة ودار البجالي ودار الخوري والداموني والديك..
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اضافات
مدينة الناصرة
دلت الحفريات على أن الناصرة سكنت منذ العصر البرونزي المتوسط والعصر الحديدي ، حيث عثر فيها على قبور أثرية منقورة في الصخر وفي الكهوف .
والناصرة مدينة عربية من أكبر مدن فلسطين وأجملها وهي مركز لقضاء يحمل اسمها ” قضاء الناصرة ” ولها مكانة خاصة عند المسيحين في مختلف أنحاء العالم فهم يحجون إليها كما يحجون إلى القدس وبيت لحم ويرجع إليها نسب سيدنا عيسى عليه السلام فدعي “يالناصري ” وعرف أتباعه أيضا بالنصارى .
تقع مدينة الناصرة بين أقضية عكا شمالا ، وحيفا غربا ، وطبرية وبيسان شرقا ، وجنين جنوبا . وهي عاصمة الجليل الأدنى وفي قلبه ، وتقوم على رقعة متوسطة الارتفاع 400م عن مستوى سطح البحر ، و300م عن مستوى سهل مرج بن عامر ، حيث تطل على البحر والمرج والكرمل والغور وجبال النار . بلغت مساحة أراضي قضاء الناصرة 497533 دونما أما مساحة أراضي مدينة الناصرة فقد بلغت 10226 دونما . وبلغ عدد سكان قضاء الناصرة عام 1922 (22681) نسمة ، وقدروا عام 1945 (46100) نسمة وبلغ عدد سكان مدينة الناصرة عام 1922 (7424) نسمة وقدروا عام 1945 (14200) نسمة .
ومناخ الناصرة هو مناخ البحر الأبيض المتوسط حيث الجفاف والحرارة المعتدلة صيفا والمطر الدفئ شتاء .
وأهم المحاصيل الزراعية في الناصرة ، الحبوب والفواكه ، والزيتون والخضروات ، وأما أهم صناعاتها فهي المصنوعات الخشبية ، وإعداد الجلود وصناعة الفخار وصناعة الهدايا من النحاس والسجاد .
في الناصرة 24 كنيسة وديرا ، وعدد من المعالم الدينية وبعض المساجد وأضرحة الشهداء والصالحين من المسلمين . فهي تضم ضريح الشهيد الشاعر عبد الرحيم محمود ، والمناضل الشاعر توفيق زياد .
وأهم المعالم الدينية : كنيسة البشارة ، كنيسة القديس يوسف ، كنيسة البلاطة ، كنيسة سيدة الرجفة أو الرعشة ، وعين العذراء : هي نبع رئيسي في المدينة وينسب للعذراء مريم لأنها كانت تستقي منها احتلت القوات البريطانية مدينة الناصرة في 21/9/1918 ، وكانت الناصرة في طليعة المدن الفلسطينية التي قاومت الاحتلال البريطاني والصهيوني ، حيث شاركت في كل الثورات والاضطرابات والمؤتمرات الفلسطينية التي شهدتها البلاد ضد البريطانيين والصهاينة . ورغم الدفاع البطولي من أهالي الناصرة وحامينها فقد احتلت المنظمات الصهيونية المسلحة المدينة في يوم الجمعة 16/7/1948 .
واليوم فإن الناصرة هي أكبر مدن فلسطين في الوطن المحتل وتمثل قاعدة للثقافة ومركزا للحركة الوطنية الفلسطينية
مدينة الناصرة
دلت الحفريات على أن الناصرة سكنت منذ العصر البرونزي المتوسط والعصر الحديدي ، حيث عثر فيها على قبور أثرية منقورة في الصخر وفي الكهوف .
والناصرة مدينة عربية من أكبر مدن فلسطين وأجملها وهي مركز لقضاء يحمل اسمها ” قضاء الناصرة ” ولها مكانة خاصة عند المسيحين في مختلف أنحاء العالم فهم يحجون إليها كما يحجون إلى القدس وبيت لحم ويرجع إليها نسب سيدنا عيسى عليه السلام فدعي “يالناصري ” وعرف أتباعه أيضا بالنصارى .
تقع مدينة الناصرة بين أقضية عكا شمالا ، وحيفا غربا ، وطبرية وبيسان شرقا ، وجنين جنوبا . وهي عاصمة الجليل الأدنى وفي قلبه ، وتقوم على رقعة متوسطة الارتفاع 400م عن مستوى سطح البحر ، و300م عن مستوى سهل مرج بن عامر ، حيث تطل على البحر والمرج والكرمل والغور وجبال النار . بلغت مساحة أراضي قضاء الناصرة 497533 دونما أما مساحة أراضي مدينة الناصرة فقد بلغت 10226 دونما . وبلغ عدد سكان قضاء الناصرة عام 1922 (22681) نسمة ، وقدروا عام 1945 (46100) نسمة وبلغ عدد سكان مدينة الناصرة عام 1922 (7424) نسمة وقدروا عام 1945 (14200) نسمة .
ومناخ الناصرة هو مناخ البحر الأبيض المتوسط حيث الجفاف والحرارة المعتدلة صيفا والمطر الدفئ شتاء .
وأهم المحاصيل الزراعية في الناصرة ، الحبوب والفواكه ، والزيتون والخضروات ، وأما أهم صناعاتها فهي المصنوعات الخشبية ، وإعداد الجلود وصناعة الفخار وصناعة الهدايا من النحاس والسجاد .
في الناصرة 24 كنيسة وديرا ، وعدد من المعالم الدينية وبعض المساجد وأضرحة الشهداء والصالحين من المسلمين . فهي تضم ضريح الشهيد الشاعر عبد الرحيم محمود ، والمناضل الشاعر توفيق زياد .
وأهم المعالم الدينية : كنيسة البشارة ، كنيسة القديس يوسف ، كنيسة البلاطة ، كنيسة سيدة الرجفة أو الرعشة ، وعين العذراء : هي نبع رئيسي في المدينة وينسب للعذراء مريم لأنها كانت تستقي منها احتلت القوات البريطانية مدينة الناصرة في 21/9/1918 ، وكانت الناصرة في طليعة المدن الفلسطينية التي قاومت الاحتلال البريطاني والصهيوني ، حيث شاركت في كل الثورات والاضطرابات والمؤتمرات الفلسطينية التي شهدتها البلاد ضد البريطانيين والصهاينة . ورغم الدفاع البطولي من أهالي الناصرة وحامينها فقد احتلت المنظمات الصهيونية المسلحة المدينة في يوم الجمعة 16/7/1948 .
واليوم فإن الناصرة هي أكبر مدن فلسطين في الوطن المحتل وتمثل قاعدة للثقافة ومركزا للحركة الوطنية الفلسطينية .
JURESLIM CITY
مدينة القدس
تعتبرالقدس من أقدم مدن الأرض ، فقد هدمت وأعيد بناؤها أكثر من 18 مرة في التاريخ، وترجع نشأتها إلى 5000 سنة ق.م، حيث عمرها الكنعانيون، واعطوها اسمها، وفي 3000 ق.م. سكنها العرب اليبوسيين، وبنوا المدينة وأطلقوا عليها اسم مدينة السلام، نسبة إلى سالم أو شالم “إله السلام” عندهم، وقد ظهرت في هذه المدينة أول جماعة آمنت بالتوحيد برعاية ملكها “ملكى صادق”، وقد وسع ملكى صادق المدينة واطلق عليها اسم “أورسالم” أي مدينة السلام. وحملت القدس العديد من الأسماء عبر فترات التاريخ، ورغم هذا التعدد إلا أنها حافظت على اسمها الكنعاني العربي.
وتعتبر القدس ظاهرة حضارية فذة تنفرد فيها دون سواها من مدن العالم، فهي المدينة المقدسة التي يقدسها اتباع الديانات السماوية الثلاث: المسلمون، النصارى، واليهود، فهي قبلة لهم ومصدر روحي ورمزاً لطموحاتهم.
شيدت النواة الأولى للقدس على تلال الظهور (الطور أو تل أوفل)، المطلة على بلدة سلوان، إلى الجنوب الشرقي من المسجد الأقصى، لكن هذه النواة تغيرت مع الزمن وحلت محلها نواة رئيسية تقوم على تلال اخرى مثل مرتفع بيت الزيتون (بزيتا) في الشمال الشرقي للمدينة بين باب الساهرة وباب حطة، ومرتفع ساحة الحرم (مدريا) في الشرق، ومرتفع صهيون في الجنوب الغربي، وهي المرتفعات التي تقع داخل السور فيما يُعرف اليوم بالقدس القديمة.
وتمتد القدس الآن بين كتلتي جبال نابلس في الشمال، وجبال الخليل في الجنوب، وتقع إلى الشرق من البحر المتوسط، وتبعد عنها 52كم، وتبعد عن البحر الميت 22كم، وترتفع عن سطح البحر حوالي 775م، ونحو 1150م عن سطح البحر الميت، وهذا الموقع الجغرافي والموضع المقدس للدينة ساهما في جعل القدس المدينة المركزية في فلسطين.
وكانت القدس لمكانتها موضع أطماع الغزاة، فقد تناوب على غزوها وحكمها في العهد القديم: العبرانيون، الفارسيون، السلوقيون، الرومانيون، والصليبيون، أما في العهد الحديث فكان العثمانيون، والبريطانيون، كلهم رحلوا وبقيت القدس صامدة في وجه الغزاة وسيأتي الدور ليرحل الصهاينة، وتبقى القدس مشرقة بوجهها العربي.
بلغت مساحة أراضيها حوالي 20790 دونماً،
قامت المنظمات الصهيونية المسلحة في 28/4/1948 باحتلال الجزء الغربي من القدس، وفي عام 1967 تم احتلال الجزء الشرقي منها، وفي 27/6/1967 أقر الكنيست الإسرائيلي ضم شطري القدس، وفي 30/7/1980 أصدر الكنيست قراراً يعتبر القدس الموحدة عاصمة لإسرائيل. وقد تعرضت القدس للعديد من الإجراءات العنصرية تراوحت بين هدم أحياء بكاملها مثل حي المغاربة، ومصادرة الأراضي لإقامة المستعمرات، وهدم المنازل العربية أو الإستيلاء عليها، والضغط على السكان العرب من أجل ترحيلهم .
وكانت أكثل الأشكال العنصرية بروزاً هي مصادرة الأراضي، فقد صادرت اسرائيل ما يزيد على 23 الف دونم من مجموع مساحة القدس الشرقية البالغة 70 ألف دونم، منذ عام 1967، وأقيم عليها حوالي 35 ألف وحدة سكنية لليهود، ولم يتم اقامة أي وحدة سكنية للعرب. وما زالت اسرائيل مستمرة في مصادرة الأراضي من القدس.
وتحيط بالقدس حوالي عشرة أحياء سكنية، وأكثر من 41 مستعمرة، تشكل خمس كتل إستيطانية.
تُعتبر القدس من أشهر المدن السياحية، وهي محط أنظار سكان العالم أجمع، يؤمها السياح لزيارة الأماكن المقدسة، والأماكن التاريخية الهامة، فهي تضم العديد من المواقع الأثرية الدينية، ففيها : الحرم الشريف، مسجد الصخرة، المسجد الأقصى، حائط البراق، الجامع العمري، كنيسة القيامة، كما يقع إلى شرقها جبل الزيتون، الذي يعود تاريخه إلى تاريخ القدس، فيضم مدافن ومقامات شهداء المسلمين، وتوجد على سفحه بعض الكنائس والأديرة مثل الكنيسة الجثمانية التي قضى فيها المسيح أيامه الأخيرة.
والقدس حافلة بالمباني الأثرية الإسلامية النفيسة، ففيها أكثر من مائة بناء أثري إسلامي، وتُعتبر قبة الصخرة هي أقدم هذه المباني، وكذلك المسجد الأقصى، وفي عام 1542م شيد السلطان العثماني سليمان القانوني سوراً عظيماً يحيط بالقدس، يبلغ محيطه أربع كيلومترات، وله سبعة أبواب هي : العمود، الساهرة، الأسباط، المغاربة، النبي داود، الخليل، الحديد.
وقد تعرض المسجد الأقصى منذ عام 1967 إلى أكثر من عشرين اعتداء تراوحت بين التدمير والهدم، والاحراق، وإطلاق الرصاص، وحفر الأنفاق، واستفزازات الصلاة، وشهدت القدس عدة مذابح ضد الفلسطينيين، وما زال الفلسطينيون وسكان القدس يتعرضوا إلى الإستفزازات والإجراءات العنصرية الصهيونية
الخريطة
تاريخ القدس القديم
أ- الأرض المقدسة:
ب- ليست مقصورة على مدينة القدس, فقد قال العلماء في قوله تعالى:” يا قوم ادخلوا الأرض المقدسة” هي أرض فلسطين وفي قوله تعالى ” الأرض التي باركنا في للعاملين” هي فلسطين
ت- ومن الواضح قوله تعالى في سورة الإسراء” سبحان الذي أسرى بعبده ليلا من المسجد الحرام الى المسجد الأقصى الذي باركنا حوله” هي فلسطين لأن ما حول المسجد الأقصى هو أرض فلسطين.
ث- ويقوم القاضي مجير الدين الحنبلي وهو من أبناء القرن السابع الهجري: أن الحدود العرفية لبيت المقدس في أيامه, كانت من القبلة: مدينة الخليل ومن الشرق: نهر الأردن ومن الشمال نابلس ومن الغرب الى ما يقرب مدينة غزة. وقال بعض العلماء: إنها تشمل كل المدن التي يشملها اسم فلسطين. وقد جاءت هذه القدسية من حلول مجموعة من الأنبياء فيها. وتم لهم التبشير والدعوة الى معرفة الله. وقد جاء في صحيح البخاري أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم سئل: من أكرم الناس يا رسول الله؟ فقال: أتقاهم لله, قالوا : ليس عن هذا نسألك: قال : فأكرم الناس يوسف الصديق, فانه نبي الله ابن نبي الله ابن نبي الله بن خليل الله”وهؤلاء الأربعة وهم: إبراهيم الخليل وولده اسحق وولده يعقوب وولده يوسف, قبورهم في فلسطين وفي محل واحد في مدينة الخليل, ومن الأنبياء غير ما ذكرت: النبي لوط الذي هاجر مع عمه إبراهيم الى الأرض المقدسة فقال الله تعالى عن سيدنا إبراهيم”ونجيناه ولوطا الى الأرض التي باركنا في للعالمين”
وهي الأرض المقدسة فلسطين, فإبراهيم عليه السلام نزل الخليل, ولوط نزل سادوم, وعامورة, قرب البحر الميت. وأما يوسف الصديق فهو من مواليد فلسطين بالقرب من نابلس وانتقل الى مصر في قصته المشهورة, وعندما قدم موسى الى الأرض فلسطين حمل جثمانه معه ودفن في الخليل, ومن الأنبياء: داوود, الذي أقام مملكة في القدس وتلاه ابنه سليمان عليها السلام, ومن الأنبياء زكريا ويحيى وعيسى ابن مريم
بناء القدس واسمها:
لقد كان أول من تزل القدس وأرضها” اليبوسيون” وهم قبيلة من الكنعانيين العرب وملكوا عليهم ” ملكي صادق” فاختط مدينة القدس. أو اختطها حفيد ايلياء ولذلك كانت تدعى “يبوس” كما تدعى ايلياء. ويقول القاضي مجير الدين: إن القدس القديمة كانت أكبر من مصر_القاهرة_وأكبر من بغداد في أيام ازدهارها.
ويرجع المؤخرون أن نزوح اليبوسيين الى أرض فلسطين, كان منذ(4000) سنة قبل الميلاد. كانت ديانة اليبوسيين عبادة الأصنام وكان صنمهم الأكبر” بعل” وصنع من الذهب, وقد سميت بعد اسم يبوس, وايلياء, بأسماء كثيرة منها: أورشليم, بمعنى أرض السلام كما سميت صهيون نسبة الى هضبة داخل أورشليم.
أما تسميتها بالقدس أوب يت المقدس فهو اسم اسلامي وقد أضاف اليه العثمانيون ضفة الشريف فقالوا القدس الشريف”
العهود التي مرت على القدس: مرت على القدس العهود التي مرت على فلسطين, فبعد أن بناها اليبوسيون وسكنوها قرونا عديدة, ظهر العبرانيون, والمصريون أتباع موسى, الذين ادعوا أنهم(إسرائيليون” وما هم بإسرائيليين, لأن ذرية إسرائيل يعقوب عليه السلام التي دخلت مصر كان قليلة وامتزجت بالشعب المصري.
جاء هؤلاء مع موسى في نحو القرن الثالث عشر قبل الميلاد وبعد عصر إبراهيم بحوالي 500 سنة وقد وقعوا في التيه في سيناء 40 سنة فدخلوا فلسطين وأناخوا بجوال القدس, يترقبون الفرص لاحتلالها, ومات موسى حينما كانوا منتشرين بين القرى والضياع فصاروا يضايقون سكان القدس, وحانت الفرصة لهم فاحتلوا القدس بعد صراع طويل ضعف فيه أمر اليبوسيين ولكن سكان القدس لم يغادروها وبقول بعد ذلك 300 سنة يقيمون في جبل صهيون داخل القدس, ولم تقم للعبرانيين دولة إلا بعد دخول داود القدس. وكان داود يقيم حبرون “مدينة الخليل, فغزا أورشليم وفتحها فتمسك به العبرانيون وعدوه ملكهم الأول. وبدأ في بناء الهيكل” المعبد” أي المسجد, وأكمله بعده ابنه سليمان في نحو سنة 1007 ق.م فسمي هيكل سليمان ولم يكن داود وسليمان يهودا واكن الهيكل الذي بناه سليمان خاص بالموحدين المؤمنين باله داود وسليمان ولم يكن خاصا بالإسرائيليين أو العبرانيين وبعد موت سليمان انقسمت الدولة الى مملكتين: يهوذا وعاصمتهما( أورشليم” فيا لجنوب من فلسطين ومملكة السامرة وعاصمتها شكيم أي نابلس. ومن ذلك التاريخ ظهر اسم اليهود نسبة الى يهوذا
وعندما جاء نبوخذ نصر الكلداني ملك بابل قضى على دولة اليهود وسبا رجالهم ونساءهم وساقهم الى العراق, وهناك في المنفى كتب اليهود التوراة المحرفة والتلمود, ونشأت الديانة اليهودية بصورة رسمية وعندما قضى الفرس على الكلدانيين وفتحوا بلاد الشام وفلسطين سمحوا لليهود بالعودة و إعادة بناء الهيكل الذي كان نبوخذ نصر قد هدمه, ثم هدم مرة أخرى في العهد اليوناني, وفي القرن الثاني قبل الميلاد وجاء في أثرهم العهد الروماني, وكان من أبرز عهود الرومان, عهد هيرودوس الذي نصبه الرومان حاكما, على فلسطين, فقام بتجديد الهيكل, ثم أحرق نهائيا: ولم يعد أحد يهتدي الى مكانه, وعندما اعتنق الرومان المسيحية وبنوا الكنائس واشتد ساعد المسيحيين في القدس, لم يعد لليهود مكانة منذ ذلك الوقت الى أن جاء الفتح الإسلامي وأعطى الأديان السماوية حقها في العبادة, شعر اليهود بشيء من الاطمئنان ولوا الفتح العربي لما بقي في البلاد يهودي, فهو الذي أنقذهم من اعتداءات الرومان…
يبلغ عمر القدس نحو 35 قرنا..وقد أقيمت نواتها الأولى في بقعة جبلية هي جزء من جبال القدس..ترتفع 750 متر عن سطح البحر المتوسط..ونحو 1150 متر عن سطح البحر الميت..وكانت النشأة الأولى على تلال الضهور (الطور) المطلة على قرية سلوان الى الجنوب الشرقي من المسجد الأقصى..وقد اختير هذا الموضع الدفاعي لتوفير أسباب الحماية والأمن لهذه المدينة…وساعدت مياه عين(أم الدرج) في الجناب الشرقي من الضهور على توفير المياه للسكان..ويحيط وادي جهنم (قدرون) بالمدينة القديمة من الناحية الشرقية..ووادي الربابة(هنوم) من الجهة الجنوبية..ووادي (الزبل) من الجهة الغربية..وقد كونت هذه الأودية خطوطا دفاعية..ولا يمكن دخول القدس الا من الجهتين الشمالية والشمالية الغربية..وقد هجرت النواة الأولى بمرور الزمن وحلت محلها نواة رئيسية تقوم على تلال أخرى..مثل مرتفع بيت الزيتون “بزيتا” في الشمال الشرقي ومرتفع ساحة الحرم”موريا” في الشرق..ومرتفع” صهيون”..وهي المرتفعات التي تقع داخل السور فيما يعرف اليوم بالقدس القديمة..ثم اتسعت المدينة خارج السور والتحمت بها قرى مثل” شعطاف” و”بين حنينا” و”سلوان” و”عين كارم”
_الاسم والتاريخ:
أقدم اسم لها “أورشالم” يعني الاله شالم..أي اله السلام لدى الكنعانيين وورد هذا الاسم بالتوراة..وأطلق على المدينة اسم “يبوس” نسبة الى اليبوسيين من بطون العرب الأوائل في الجزيرة العربية وهم سكان القدس الأصليون نزحوا مع من نزح من القبائل الكنعانية حوالي 3500 سنة قبل الميلاد…وسكنوا التلال المشرفة على المدينة القديمة..وبنى هؤلاء حصنا..وبقي بأيديهم(حتى بعد مجيىء الموسويين) زهاء ثلاثة قرون لعجزهم عن اقتحماه..حتى تولى ملكهم داود..فاحتلوا الحصن واتخذ أورشليم عاصمة له..وأطلق على الحصن ” مدينة داود” وكان أكثر سكان المدينة من اليبوسيين والكنعانيين وبقي اليهود يحكمون القدس (1000) سنة الى أن فتحها نبوخذ نصر البابلي في سنة 586 قبل الميلاد..ودمرها ونقل سكانها اليهود الى بابل..ثم سمح لهم ملك الفرس قورش سنة 538 قبل الميلاد بالرجوع..وبعد الفرس جاء الاسكندر المقدومي في سنة 332 قبل الميلاد..ثم جاء الرومان في سنة 63 قبل الميلاد وقام أحد الأباطرة الرومان بهدمها..وأسس مكانها مستعمرة رومانية باسم “ايليا” ثم أعاد اليها الامبراطور قسطنطين اسم أورشليم..ويبدو أن اسم ايليا بقي متداولا..لأنه وجد في عهد الأمان الذي كتبه عمر بن الخطاب..وقد تم فتح القدس على يد عمر بن الخطاب سنة 15 هـ حيث حضر الى فلسطين..وأعطى أهلها الأمان..وأخذت في العهد الاسلامي اسم “القدس” وبيت المقدس..وهكذا يتبين أن لاباني الحقيقي للقدس هم الكنعانيون..ومن ملوكهم..ملكي صادق واكن موحدا واتخذ من بقعة الحرخ الشريف معبدا له وكان يقدم ذبائحه في موقع الصخرة وما قام به داود وسليمان عليهما السلام من البناء..كان على أساس قديم هو ما بناه ملكي صادق وليا المؤسسين لبيت المقدس
_جبال القدس:
1_جبل الموريا..وعليه الحرم الشريف
2_جبل بزيتا..بالقرب من باب الساهرة
3_جبل أكرا..حيث توجد كنيسة القيامة
4_جبل صهيون..الواقع عليه مقام النبي داود
وجبال القدس ليست الا اكاما مستديرة على هضبة عظيمة بينها أودية صخرية جافة أكثر أيام السنة..ويعرف القسم الجنوبي منها باسم جبال الخليل وأشهر قمم جبال القدس: تل العاصور..وجبل النبي صمويل..وجبل المشارف..وجبل الطور..وجبل الزيتون..وجبل المكبر..وتصل جبال القدس بسهل فلسطين الساحلي عدة أودية منها: وادي جريوت..وباب الواد..أو وادي علي..ووادي الصرار..ووادي الخليل..
_أبواب القدس:
بنى السلطان العثماني سلميان القانوني عام 1542 م سورا عظيما يحيط بالقدس القديمة..يبلغ محيطه أربعة أكيال..وله سبعة أببواب:
1_ باب العمود: وهو معروف عند الأجانب باب دمشق..في منتصف الحائط الشمالي لسور القدس..وهو من ايام السلطان سليمان القانوني..
ب_ باب الساهرة: ويعرف باب” هيرودوس” وهو يقع الى الجانب الشمالي من سور القدس.
2_باب الأسباط: ويسميه الغربيون باب القديس أسطفان..يقع في الحائط الشرقي
3_باب المغاربة..وباب النبي داود في الحائط الجنوبي
4_ باب الخليل: ويسميه الغربيون باب”يافا” ويقع في الحائط الغربي
5_الباب الجديد: في الجانب الشمالي للسور على مسافة كيل غربي باب العمود وهو حديث العهد يعود الى أيام زيارة الامبراطوط غليوم الثاني لمدينة القدس سنة 1898م ( الله يرحمو سيدي نولد بهاي السنةJ)
_القدس(المسافات):
تبعد عن البحر المتوسط في خط مستقيم 52 كيلا و22 كيلا عن البحر الميت وتبعد عن دمشق 290 كيلا وعن القاهرة 528 كيلا
_القدس”المسجد الأقصى”:
يتألف الحرم القدسي من المسجدين..مسجد الصخرة والمسجد الأقصى..وما بينهما وما حولهما حتى الأسوار وقد قام ببناء المسجدين عبد الملك بن مروان..وأوقف على نفقاتهما خراج مصر لمدة سبع سنين..أما قبة الصخرة فتم بناؤها سنة 70 هـ والمسجد الأقصى يبعد نحو 500 متر جنوب الصخرة وشرع في اقامته عبد الملك بعد بناء مسجد الصخرة..وتم بناؤه في عهد ابنه الوليد بن عبد الملك..
BETLAHEM CITY
مدينة بيت لحم
مدينة بيت لحم من المدن الفلسطينية العريقة حيث سكنها الكنعانيون العرب قبل 2000 سنة ق. م. إسمها الأقدم ” أقرات أو افراته” وتعني بالأرامية ” المثمر أو الخصب . “وعرفت باسم بيت ايلو لاهاما” وبيت لاخاما” نسبة إاى اله الطعام (لاهاما) وعند الكنعانيين (لخمو) . وفي الأرامية لخم أو لحم قرية متواضعة تكتنفها الوديان العميقة ، ويروى أن سيدنا يعقوب عليه السلام قد مر بها وهو في طريقه إلى الخليل ، وقد توفيت زوجته راحيل في مكان قريب منها يعرف اليوم باسم (قبة راحيل ) .
وقد أخذ اسم بيت لحم في الظهور بعد ولادة سيدنا المسيح عليه السلام فيها ، وقد أقيمت فوق المغارة التي ولد فيها عيسى عليه السلام كنيسة تعرف باسم ” كنيسة المهد” ، أقامتها هيلانة والدة قسطنطين ملك روما ، وذلك عام 330م ، وتعتبر من أقدم الكنائس في العالم حيث يحج إليها المسيحيون من كل أرجاء المعمورة .
تعد مدينة بيت لحم مركزا لقضاء يضم مدينتين بيت ساحور ، وبيت جالا ، وسبع قرى وأربع قبائل هم (السواحرة ، التعامرة ، ابن عبيد ، الرشايدة) إضافة إلى ثلاث مخيمات للاجئين هي الدهيشة ، العزة ، عايدة .
بلغت مساحة قضاء بيت لحم قبل النكبة عام 1948(6693)كم2 أما بعد النكبة فبلغت مساحته 580كم2 وبلغ عدد سكانه عام 1922 (24613) نسمة وعام 1945 (25171) نسمة وعام 1965 (63003) نسمة ، تقع مدينة بيت لحم على جبل يرتفع عن مستوى سطح البحر 789م وإلى جنوب القدس 10كم ، ويحدها من الشرق أراضي بيت ساحور ومن الغرب أراضي بيت جالا ومن الشمال أراضي قرية أرطاس . وهي ذات مناخ معتدل الحرارة صيفا بارد شتاء . ومساحتة أراضي بيت لحم بلغت 29799 دونما . وبلغ عدد السكان عام 1922 (5568) نسمة وعام 1945 (8820) نسمة وعام 1967 (16300) نسمة ووفقا للإحصاء الفلسطيني لعام 1997 فقد بلغوا (136517) نسمة . وتعتبر مدينة بيت لحم من أهم المدن السياحية في العالم حيث يزورها ويحج إليها المسيحيون طوال العام ، لاحتوائها على العديد من المعالم الأثرية مثل كنيسة المهد ، وكنيسة القديسة كاترينا ، وقبر راحيل ، وبرك سليمان وغيرها .
وفي هذه المدينة تقوم بعض الصناعات والتي ترتبط بالسياحية مثل صناعة الصوف ونحت الخشب وصناعة الأثاث المعدني وغيرها . وقد اشتركت بيت لحم ومنطقتها في جميع الثورات والمظاهرات التي شهدتها البلاد ضد الاحتلالين البريطاني والصهيوني ، وبعد النكبة دخلت هذه المدينة مع مدن الضفة الغربية تحت الحكم الأردني . ثم الاحتلال الصهيوني عام 1967 وكان في بيت لحم عامي 66/67 تسعة عشر مدرسة منها 4 مدارس حكومية وواحدة لوكالة الغوث والباقي مدارس خاصة .
تطوق بيت لحم مجموعة من المستعمرات والتي يطلق عليها مجموعة ” غوش عتسيون ” ووصل عددها في منطقة بيت لحم حنى عام 1985 (16) مستعمرة وأكبر هذه المستعمرات ومركزها ” مستعمرة افرات” ويخطط لإقامة (9) مستوطنات أخرى حتى عام 2010م.
RAFAH CITY
مدينة رفح
مدينة عربية من مدن قضاء غزة..تبعد عن ساحل البحر المتوسط نحو 5/6 خمسة أكيال ونص..وقد اكتسبت أهمية خاصة لكونها نقطة الحدود الفلسطينية الجنوبية مع مصر..وموقعها الطبيعي جعلها كذلك..فمن بعدها نحو الجنوب تقل الأمطار..وينتهي الخصب..وتبدأ الصحراء..وقد وردت في التاريخ بأسماء متعددة:فعند المصريين القدماء باسم”روبيهوى”..وعند الاشوريين”رفيحو”وعند اليونان”رافيا” وسماها العرب” رفح”..حررها العرب على يد عمرو بن العاص في زمن عمر بن الخطاب..ويصفها ياقتوت بأنها كانت في القرن السابع الهجري خرابا..ويذكر على المهلبي أنها كانت مدينة عامرة فيها سوق وجامع ومنبر فنادق وأهلها من لخم وجذام…وفيهم لصوصية واغارة على أمتعة الناس حتى أن كلاهم أضر كلاب أرض بسرقة ما يسرق مثله الكلاب…ويذكر بأنه كان على ثلاثة أميال من رفح شجر جميز مصطف بين جانبيي الطريق على اليمين والشمال نحو ألف شجرة متصلة أغصان بعضها ببعض مسيرة يومين..وعادت الى مسرح الحياة عندما مر بها نابليون أثناء حملته على الشام قادما من مصر سنة 1799م..وبعد ذلك بنحو مائة عام سنة 1898م زارها الخديوي اسماعيل..وزارها الخديوي عباس حلمي من أجل تعيين الحدود المصرية السورية..وأقر في هذه الزيارة بأن عمودي الغرانيت القائمين تحت شجرة السدر القديمة هما الحد الفاصل بين سورية ومصر..وحصل نزاع بين حكومة تركيا وبين مصر التي كانت تحتلها بريطانيا بشأن الحدود التي تفصل سيناء عن فلسطين سنة 1906 فقد كانت ترى تركيا أن مصر من أملاكها..واحتل جنود أتراك ” طابا” على خليج العقبة..ثم رضخت تركيا لطل بريطانيا وانسحبت من “طابا” وفي سنة 1917م احتل البريطانيون رفح وأخرجو العثمانيين منها..تبعد رفح نحو 38 كيلا جنوب غزة ونحو 13 كيلا جنوب خان يونس وترتفع نحو 48 م عن سطح البحرز.كانت في القديم تقسم الى قسمين رفح الشرقية ورفح الغربية..وفصل بينهما كثبان من الرمال..ومن أشهر قبائل رفح الشرقية: عشيرة قشطة..وأبو ضهير..وأما رفح الغربية فأشهر عشائرها عشيرة زعرب..ويعود معظم سكانها الى خان يونس والى بدو صحراء النقب وصحراء سينا حيث كانوا يأتون الى رفح أثناء المواسم الزراعية ثم يعودون ثم استقروا وبنوا مساكنهم.وكان يسكنها قبل الاسلام وبعده قبائل لخم وجذام العربية…وقد أصبحت الام متصلة العمران شرقيتها وغربيها..وعمرت الأرض كلها بالزراعة وخاصة البرتقال..وفيها مخيم كبير للاجئين..وبلغ عدد السكان سنة 1979م من اللاجئين وأهل البلد الأصليين حوالي 90 ألف نسمة..يعملون في الزراعة والتجارة..والمواصلي على بحر رفح لا تقل مكانتها عن مواصي خان يونس..حيث تكثر المياه وتجود الزراعة…
مدينة رفح
تقع مدينة رفح في أقصى الجنوب وتبعد عن مدينة غزة حوالي 35كم. وعن خان يونس 10كم. يحدها من الغرب البحر المتوسط ومن الشرق خط الهدنة عام 48 ومن الجنوب الحدود المصرية الفلسطينية. وتعتبر رفح من المدن التاريخية القديمة فقد أنشأت قبل خمس آلاف سنة وعرفت بأسماء عديدة. فقد عرفها الفراعنة باسم (روبيهوى) وأطلق عليها الآشوريون اسم (رفيحو) وأطلق عليها الرومان واليونان اسم (رافيا) وأطلق عليها العرب اسم رفح.
ومما زاد من أهميتها عبر التاريخ مرور خط السكة الحديدية الواصل بين القاهرة وحيفا في أراضيها وقد اقتلع هذا الخط بعد عام 1967.
قسمت مدينة رفح إلى شطرين بعد اتفاقية كامب ديفيد. حيث انفصلت رفح سيناء عن رفح الأم.
وتقدر مساحة ما ضم إلى الجانب المصري حوالي 4000 دونم وبقي من مساحة أراضيها 15500 دونم اقتطع منها حوالي 3500 دونم للمستعمرات.
تبلغ المساحة المزروعة في رفح حوالي 7500 دونم تزرع مختلف أنواع المزروعات كالحمضيات واللوزيات والخضروات.
وقُدر عدد سكانها
• عام 1922 حوالي (599) نسمة.
• وفي عام 1945 (2220) نسمة.
• وفي عام 1967 (10800) نسمة من السكان الأصليين.
تأسست في المدينة أول مدرسة ابتدائية عام 1936 وتطورت الحركة التعليمية بشكل ملحوظ وفتحت العديد من المدارس لجميع المراحل الدراسية.
صادرت سلطات الإحتلال مساحات شاسعة من اراضيها.
وأقامت عليها مستعمرة (موراج) عام 1987.
ومستعمرة غوش قطيف التي تفصل بين مدينة رفح وشاطئ البحر.
ومستعمرة نباي اتزمون عام 1979.
ومستعمرة بيدولة عام 1986.
ومستعمرة رفيح يام عام 1986. بيات سارح عام 1989
GAZA HISTORY
المدن السياحية:
غزة
الموقع والتسمية
في الجزء الجنوبي من الساحل الشرقي للبحر المتوسط تقع مدينة غزة، وقد جاء موقعها عند التقاء إقليمين جغرافيين متباينين، إقليم البحر المتوسط بمناخه المعتدل وأراضيه الخصبة ومياهه العذبة، والإقليم الصحراوي الجاف، وأراضيه ذات الرمال المتحركة، وهي بهذا تحتل موقعاً ذا أهمية كبيرة، فهي تقع على أبرز الطرق التجارية القديمة، حيث تتجمع فيها التجارة القادمة من الهند، وحضرموت واليمن ومكة، لتنتقل فيما بعد إلى دمشق وتدمر، وباقي مناطق الشام، وزادت أهميتها الاقتصادية فيما بعد، خصوصاً بعد إنشاء خط سكة حديد القنطرة- حيفا، ماراً بغزة، ويواصل هذا الخط طريقه إلى لبنان وسوريا وتركيا.
وغزة كلمة كنعانية عربية وقد قيل في معناها أقوال منها أن غزة تعني خص، فيقول ياقوت الحموي في كتابه معجم البلدان: اغتز فلان بفلان أي اختصه من بين أصحابه، وقد قيل أيضاً أن غزة تعني القوة أو المنعة، وسماها الكنعانيون باسم هزاني، والعبرانيون غزة، وسماها المصريون القدماء باسم غازاتو وغاداتو، وسماها الأشوريون عزاتي، وسماها الفرس هازانوت بمعنى الكنز، وأعطيت عبر العصور المختلفة أسماء عديدة منها، أيوني ومينودا وقسطنديا إلا أن غزة احتفظت باسمها العربي التي ما زالت محتفظة به حتى الآن.
غزة عبر التاريخ :
مدينة غزة قديمة قدم التاريخ فهي وليدة عصور متتالية وقرون طويلة، تركت بصماتها فيها، وتركت هي أيضاً بصماتها على مدى السنين وتوالي الأيام، وكان من أقدم. من سكن غزة من القبائل الكنعانية هم الأليقيم كما سكنها منهم بطون المعنيين، وهم أول من ارتادها وغشي أسواقها من العرب الأوائل، ويذكر بعض المؤرخين أن المعينين هم أول من أسسوا مدينة غزة بعد اكتشاف أهمية موقعها، وأهمية الطرق المؤدية إليها، والخارجة منها وبعد المعينين أخذ السبأيون يؤمون غزة بقوافلهم التجارية، ومن أقدم من استوطن غزة العويون ثم الكنعانيون ثم العناقيون كما استوطنها المديانيون والأدوميون والعموريون والكنعانيون وغيرهم إلا أن الكنعانيين هم أول من سكنوها وحافظوا على وجودها وتركوا بصماتهم على تاريخها الطويل، وسجل التاريخ بأن الكنعانيين هم العرب الأوائل الذين يرجعون بأنسابهم إلى العمالقة، وجاءت هجرتهم مد للموجات السامية التي أخذت طريقها إلى البلاد، ويذكر المؤرخون أن مدينة غزة يعود تاريخها إلى 4000- 3500 سنة قبل الميلاد.
وقد سميت فلسطين في ذلك الوقت بأراضي كنعان، كانت غزة تمثل الحد الجنوبي من أرض كنعان التي امتدت إلى الشمال في عكا وصيدا، وعلى طول الساحل أقيمت المدن الكنعانية المحاطة بالأسوار وشيدوا حضارة عظمى، عرفت التجارة والصناعة والتعدين، كما اخترعوا الحروف الهجائية، ووضعوا الشرائع والقوانين، وعبد الكنعانيون الأصنام، ومن أصنامهم بعل أو السيد وهو الإله الذي اشتهرت به غزة عندما كانت عبادة الأوثان هي السائدة.
وكان الكنعانيون ماهرين في فنون الحرب، وتميزوا بالجرأة لدرجة أنهم ثاروا على ملوك مصر مثل رعمسيس الثاني والمشهور باسم سيزو سترس أو رعمسيس الأكبر، وهو أعظم من ملك مصر بالحكمة والبطش مدة طويلة، وقاوم الكنعانيون الغزوة العبرية، مما أثار حفيظة الإسرائيليين، فتناولوهم كثيراً في أشعارهم لكثرة ما بطشوا بهم كما ذكروا غزة كثيراً فقالوا في الإصحاح الثاني من سفر صفينا إن غزة تكون متروكة، واشكلون للخراب.
ولقد كان لغزة شأن مع المصريين القدماء والفراعنة، حيث عبر الكثير من ملوك مصر الفراعنة، إما لفتحها أو للانطلاق منها لفتح الشام، وكانت ذات أهمية خاصة لهم، وكانت في عهد الأسرة الثامنة عشر والتاسعة عشر المقر الرئيسي للجيش المصري المحتل لفلسطين، واتخذها تحتمس قاعدة لهجومه، ثم خضعت غزة لسيطرة الهكسوس بعد أن تمنعت عنهم مدة طويلة، عندما كانت تأخذ موقعاً عند تل العجول، حيث كان البحر قريباً من المدينة، والسفن ترسوا على شواطئها، واستوطنها الهكسوس استعداداً لهجومهم على مصر، وشهدت غزة نوعاً من الازدهار في عهدهم، قبل طردهم من قبل المصريين، وقد عثر على كثير من الآثار التي تدل على هذه الحقبة من تاريخ غزة، تضمن حلي ذهبية وكنوز ثمينة.
ثم خضعت مدينة غزة للفلسطينيين، وهم شعب جاء من البحر المتوسط، وأسسوا خمس ممالك، وكانت غزة إحداها، أما الأربعة الأخرى فهي عسقلان- اسدود- وجت وعفرون، وقد أطلق اسم فلسطين على أرض كنعان نسبة إلى هذه القبائل، وحارب الفلسطينيون الغزاة الإسرائيليين، وحالوا دون سيطرتهم على المدن الفلسطينية، وكان للفلسطينيين مراكب وعربات الخيول وبرعوا في صناعة المحاريث والآلات المنزلية، وكانت لهم ديانة، ومن أشهر هياكلهم الآلهة داجوان.
ثم تعرضت مدينة غزة لحكم الأشوريين، وكان ذلك في عهد ملكهم تبغلات بلازر الأول، ودارت معارك متعددة بين المصريين والأشوريين، حيث تحالف أهلها مع المصريين، ثم جاء الملك سرجت، وتمكن من إخضاعها، وأسر ملكها حانون عام 720 ق م، وقد سميت غزة آنذاك باسم مارنا أو سيدنا، وظلت خاضعة للأشوريين حتى عام 609 ق م، حيث أعادها الملك نيخو الثاني المصري إلى حظيرة المملكة المصرية بقوة السلاح.
وبعد ذلك خضعت غزة لحكم البابليين، وكان أول من هاجمها منهم الملك سرجون الأكادي، ثم ابنه كارام سين، إلا أن حكمهم لم يدم طويلاً لتمكن المصريين من استرداد المدينة ولكنهم تراجعوا تحت ضغط البابليين، وخضعت غزة مرة ثانية للبابليين.
في عام 535 ق.م خضعت غزة لحكم الفرس في عهد ملكهم قنبيز، واتخذوها موقعاً حربياً ومنطلقا لتحركاتهم نحو مصر، ومنحت غزة إدارة مستقلة ضمن التشكيلات الإدارية التي أحدثتها الفرس على فلسطين، ثم خضعت غزة للحكم اليوناني في عهد الإسكندر الأكبر المقدوني عام 332 ق م. بعد أن حاصرها مدة طويلة، لأنها استعصت عليه، وأصبحت مدينة عظيمة، وشجع عدد من اليونانيين لإقامة فيها والاختلاط بأهلها، وانتشرت اللغة اليونانية في البلاد، وأصبحت لغة البلاد الرسمية، ولغة العلم والمدارس، ثم خضعت المدينة لحكم الرومان عام 96ق م، وكانت غزة تدار رأساً من إمبراطور الرومان عن طريق مندوب سامي، وقد أقام الرومان مصانع لسك النقود في غزة، وكانت هذه النقود تحمل اسم غزة على وجه، والحرف M على الوجه الآخر، إشارة إلى الصنم المعبود مارنا، وحملت بعض النقود صور انطوينوس وعلى الوجه الآخر صنم الحظ تيخافون، وظهرت صور أخرى على أنواع العملة المسكوكة في غزة، وازدهرت التجارة والعمران في عهد الرومان الذين أعادوا بناءها.
وتشير كتب التاريخ إلى صلابة شعب غزة وتمسكه الدائم بما ورثه، وحفاظه على قوميته وكرهه للغزاة، وكانت غزة في العهد القديم من معاقل الوثنية، حيث كان يوجد فيها ثماني هياكل وثنيه، عدا الأصنام الكثيرة التي كانت موجود في البيوت والقصور، بالإضافة إلى الاله داجون، وهو من الآلهة التي عبدها سكان غزة في العهود الغابرة ولا سيما عهد الفلسطينيين، وعند ظهور المسيحية بلغ العداء أشده بين الوثنيين والمسيحيين عام 395 ق.م عندما تولى الأسقفية فيها بروفيريوس الذي واصل جهوده لنشر المسيحية بعد أن حصل على تأييد الإمبراطورة افدوكسيا التي أقرت بإغلاق المعابد الوطنية، وفعلاً تم إغلاق وهدم المعابد في عملية استغرقت 10 أيام.
وفي عام 634 ق.م فتحت مدينة غزة من قبل العرب المسيحيين على يد القائد أبي أمامة الباهلي بعد معركة الدمثية – داثن.
وأقام العرب المسيحيون في غزة الحصون التي أنشأوها على السواحل، وكانوا يسمونها الرباطات، وأنشئ في غزة العديد منها، والرباط نوع من مراكز المراقبة.
وفي عام 1100م ثم احتلال مدينة غزة من قبل الصليبيين بقيادة جودفري، وقد حاول الصليبيون طمس أهمية غزة التجارية، إذ جعلوا عسقلان المركز الرئيسي للنصرانية في فلسطين، ولم يعتنوا بها من الناحية العسكرية، واستمر ذلك حتى عام 1149 عندما أمر الملك الصليبي بلدوين الثالث بإعادة تحصين غزة، فهدم أسوارها القديمة وبني فيها سوراً جديداً عادت غزة للحكم الإسلامي عام 1187م بعد انتصار المسلمين بقيادة صلاح الدين الأيوبي على الصليبيين في موقعه حطين، ثم عادت غزة ثانية إلى حكم الصليبيين، إلا أن القائد بيبرس تمكن من هزيمة الصليبيين في معركة غزة الثانية، والتي كانت لها أكبر الأثر في طرد الصليبيين من فلسطين، حتى أن بعض المؤرخين أطلقوا عليها حطين الثانية.
ثم تعرضت غزة للغزو المغولي المدمر إلا أن المسلمين تمكنوا من هزيمتهم على يد القائد ركن الدين بيبرس عام 1260م في موقعة عين جالوت، وتم طرد المغول نهائياً من فلسطين.
وهكذا فإن غزة كانت في عهد المماليك محطة للسلاطين يمرون منها في كل غزوة ضد الصليبيين، أو المغول، فأصبحت من أهم مراكز البريد، وقد زارها سلاطين المماليك والكثير من الرحالة.
ثم خضعت غزة للحكم العثماني بعد انتصار العثمانيين على المماليك، في موقعه مرج دابق عام 1516م، ولعبت دوراً هاما إبان الحكم العثماني وكانت في أغلب الأوقات سنجقاً أو لواء في ولاية الشام.
وفي عام 1799م، احتلها نابليون بونابرت قائد الحملة الفرنسية على مصر وبلاد الشام، كما دخلت تحت الحكم المصري عام 1831 بعد أن أرسل محمد على إلى مصر حملة إلى بلاد الشام بقيادة ابنه إبراهيم باشا وانسحب عام 1841م.
وفي عام 1917م دخلت غزة تحت الحكم البريطاني، واستمرت كذلك حتى عام 1948 حيث خضعت للإدارة المصرية، وفي عام 1956 وقعت تحت الاحتلال الإسرائيلي نتيجة العدوان الثلاثي وعادت عام 1957 الى الإدارة المصرية وفي عام 1967 وقعت تحت الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في أعقاب حرب الخامس من حزيران 1967، وفي عام 1994 غادر جنود الاحتلال الإسرائيلي مدينة غزة لتتولى إدارة المدينة السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية إثر اتفاقات أوسلو.
وطوال هذا التاريخ الطويل كانت غزة جزءاً من الوطن الفلسطيني، شاركت في جميع الثورات ضد البريطانيين واليهود أعوام 1929، 1936، 1948، ثم تعرضت لعدوان 1956 و1967 وقد تعرض أهالي مدينة غزة لممارسات المحتلين من قتل وتشريد ونسف للمنازل.
السكان والنشاط الاقتصادي:
تعرض سكان غزة إلى التذبذب بين الزيادة والنقصان، حيث قدر عدد سكان مدينة غزة عام 1840م نحو 2000 نسمة، وأصبح العدد في مطلع القرن العشرين26000 نسمة وقبل الحرب العالمية الأولى وصل إلى 32000 نسمة، انخفض بشكل حاد بعد الحرب ليصل إلى 4000 نسمة، ثم عاد للارتفاع ليصل إلى 17000 نسمة عام 1927، و19695 نسمة عام 1938 ووصل إلى 40000 نسمة عام 1947، ثم ارتفع بشكل كبير بعد عام 1946 بسبب تدفق أعداد كبيرة من اللاجئين فوصل عدد سكان مدينة غزة إلى 102431 نسمة عام 1954 وتوالت بعد ذلك الزيادات السكانية لمدينة غزة.
وقد مارس سكان مدينة غزة العديد من الأنشطة أهمها:
الزارعة: وقد حاولت مدينة غزة أن تنهض باقتصادها الزراعي لدرجة أنها كانت تصدر كميات كبيرة من إنتاجها كالشعير التي صدرت منه 18616 طناً عام 1930 على الرغم من عدم تشجيع حكومة الانتداب البريطاني لهذا المحصول.
وكانت غزة مشهورة بزيتها وزيتونها، وكان زيتها يصدر إلى الخارج وإلى سائر المدن الفلسطينية بكميات كبيرة، حيث انتشرت غابات الزيتون حول مدينة غزة إلا أن الجيش التركي قطع حوالي 95% من أشجار الزيتون لاستعمال حطبها للوقود بدلاً من الفحم الحجري في تسيير القطارات.
ولذلك أصبحت غزة من أقل المدن إنتاجاً للزيتون وزيته، وبالإضافة إلى الزيتون كان هناك أشجار النخيل والكروم والبساتين والخضراوات.
الصناعة: واشتهرت مدينة غزة بالعديد من الصناعات، أهمها صناعة النسيج، حيث كانت تنسج الصوف وقد وجد في غزة عام 1943 44 نولاً تنسج البسط والعباءات و 20 نولاً لنسج الأقمشة القطنية والحريرية المستعملة في الأبنية البلدية والريفية، وقد لعبت هذه الصناعة دوراً كبيراً أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية وانصراف المواطنين إلى الصناعات المحلية.
وبالإضافة إلى صناعة النسيج كان هناك صناعة الفخار، حيث كان يصدر فخارها إلى سائر المدن الفلسطينية، وصناعة الجلود والدباغة، واستخراج الكبريت من منطقة المشبه على بعد 6 كم جنوب شرق غزة، حيث ثم استخراج 422 طناً عام 1936، إلا أن المصنع توقف أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية، ولم يعمل منذ ذلك التاريخ، وهناك صناعات أخرى مثل صنع الملابس والحلويات وغيرها.
أما بعد عام 1946م فقد تطور النشاط الاقتصادي كماً ونوعاً، ففي مجال الزراعة أصبحت الحمضيات هي القطاع الأهم الذي يحقق دخلاً، حيث وصلت المساحة المزروعة بالحمضيات عام 1966 حوالي 70000 دونم، وقد مارست إسرائيل ضغوطاً على هذا المحصول بعد احتلالها للمدينة عام 1967م، فبعد أن وصل الإنتاج عام 1975-1976 إلى 237.100 طن انخفض ليصبح 153000 طن عام 1983، وذلك بسبب الممارسات الإسرائيلية المتمثلة في قطع الأشجار وعدم السماح بزراعة مساحات جديدة من أشجار الحمضيات، حيث لم تشهد سنوات الاحتلال أي نشاط صناعي، كما أنها عملت على إجهاض أي محاولة لتطوير الصناعات المحلية.
كما اعتمد قطاع من سكان غزة على الصيد رغم القوانين المجحفة التي اتخذتها اسرائيل للحد من ممارسة هذه المهنة من قبل سكان غزة.
النشاط الثقافي في مدينة غزة:
كان في غزة في نهاية الانتداب البريطاني ست مدارس حكومية، اثنتان منها للبنات وأربع للبنين، بالإضافة إلى التعليم الأهلي مثل كلية غزة التي تأسست عام 1942 على يد الأخوين شفيق ووديع ترزي، وكان لها دور فعال في بعث وتنشيط الحركة الثقافية، حيث عمدت الكلية إلى إقامة مهرجان ثقافي سنوي، تقدم فيه الإبداعات مثل الشعر والخطابة والتمثيل وفي الفترة من 1948-1967 شهد التعليم إقبالاً كبيراً من أبناء قطاع غزة، حيث ذهب أبناء غزة بالآلاف إلى الجامعات وتخرج منهم العديد من المهندسين والأطباء والأكاديميين الذين انتشروا في العالم العربي، وكانوا مصدر دخل للقطاع إلا أنه بعد احتلال قطاع غزة، فإن الأوضاع التعليمية شهدت نوعاً من التردي، نظراً لممارسات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، حيث عملت السلطات الإسرائيلية على تشويه وتخريب المناهج الدراسية، واعتقال المعلمين والطلاب، وعدم دعم المدارس بالمدرسين الأكفاء، بالإضافة إلى المعاناة المادية التي تعانيها مؤسسات التعليم والتي أثرت على سير العملية التعليم، كعدم توفر المباني والمختبرات والتجهيزات – ..الخ.
أما عن الحركة الثقافية، فقد اعتمد سكان غزة على الصحف اليومية التي كانت تصدر من يافا والقدس، والتي كان لها الدور الإعلامي الهام والرئيس، خاصةً في مراحل الثورات وتحريك الجماهير وتعبئتها، ومن هذه الصحف جريدة الدفاع – جريدة القدس- جريدة الوحدة، ومجلة الحقوق، وحقوق الحق، وصحيفة الوطن العربي.
وبالإضافة إلى الصحافة كان هناك مجموعة من الأندية التي كان لها دور في الحركة الثقافية في مدينة غزة مثل:
النادي الرياضي: الذي تأسس عام 1934 على يد رشاد الشوا، والنادي القومي الذي أسسه فائق بسيسو عام 1936، ونادي الشباب العربي الذي تأسس عام 1942 على يد منير الريس، والنادي الشعبي الذي أسسه جمال الصوراني عام 1946، والنادي الأرثوذكسي العربي الذي أسسه اسكندر فرح عام 1944، أما جمعيات المرأة فيوجد العديد منها، فقدت تأسست جمعية الاتحاد النسائي العربي بغزة عام 1946 وجمعية النهضة النسائية وجمعية التقدم النسائي، وكانت لهذه الجمعيات دور كبير في توعية المرأة، بالإضافة إلى الاشتراك في المظاهرات والأنشطة السياسة.
كما توجد في غزة جمعية الشبان المسيحية التي تقوم بالكثير من النشاطات الفنية والثقافية والرياضية.
معالم المدينة
تضم مدينة غزة عدة أحياء وهي:
حي الدرج -وحي الزيتون- وحي الشجاعية -وحي التفاح – وحي الرمال- وتنشر فيها العديد من المعالم الأثرية والعمرانية مثل:
1. الجامع العمري الكبير في حي الدرج، وهي من الجوامع العظمي في فلسطين، ضخم البناء، كبير القيمة الأثرية.
2. جامع السيد هاشم، ويقع في حي الدرج، ومدفون فيه هاشم بن عبد مناف جد الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام، أنشئ في عهد المماليك.
3. جامع ابن عثمان ويقع في حي الشجاعية، ويأتي بعد الجامع العمري الكبير، من حيث الحجم ومتانة البناء.
4. جامع كاتب الولاية، ويقع في حي الزيتون.
5. جامع الشمعة، ويقع في حارة الزيتون.
6. جامع ابن مروان، ويقع في حي التفاح.
7. جامع المحكمة، ويقع في حي الشجاعية.
8. جامع الشيخ عبد الله الأيبكي، ويقع في حي التفاح.
ومن المعالم المسيحية:
1. كنيسة الروم الأرثوذكسي، وبنيت عام 425م.
2. كنيسة اللاتين، وبنيت عام 1879م.
3. كنيسة البروتستانت وبنيت عام 1887.
وجميعها تقع في حي الزيتون.
أما من حيث المعالم الأثرية فهناك:
1. تل العجول، ويقع جنوب غرب غزة، وهو موضع مدينة غزة قديماً.
2. ميناء غزة “ميوى” أقيمت في العهد الرومان.
3. خربة أم التوت.
4. تل النفيد أو تل الصنم.
وقد عثر فيها على الكثير من الآثار التي تدل على النشاط العربي القديم، ومن المعالم العمرانية :
1. قيصرية غزة- سوق الذهب- ويقع عند الباب الشمالي .
2. حمام السمرة.
ISRAEL ATTACKED GAZA TODAY
Posted on February 28, 2011 by Omar Karem
Israel Tanks Entered Gaza Today February 28, 2011 their aims to Close the Roads that Connect Egypt and Rafah Gaza, Palestine
yesterday they attacked some people in Magazi camp no death were reported .
Israel now trying to take the time to make something inhumane in Gaza. Trying to inflict fear into the people, that are gathering together to end the internal divisions.
For the last few weeks the unrest can be felt in Palestine as all the people are Uniting to reconciled their differences between their views on the conflict and the aim of Israel to keep the division alive.
All the people inside Palestine and outside are raising their voices for ONE PALESTINE, There is one road to peace, Israel must end the occupation and Palestine be one Nation.
The US and the UN Club need to come to the realization that their support for Israel needs to end if they want to build lasting peace in the Middle East. As the situation is the middle east is concern the people are taking their lands back and the US needs to see itself isolated in its attempt to keep the dictators in place.
Israel is the only danger that we see in the middle east and in the world. Their lobbyists groups around the world are finally exposed and and there is no secrecy.
STUDENT PROTEST IN EYGPT TO END THE SPLIT OF PALESTINE
Posted on February 28, 2011 by Omar Karem
Students protest in Egypt to end the split PALESTINE
Stand and saw several interventions for the children of Palestine, particularly of students of different social strata
And groups to calls for emphasizing the importance of the unity of Palestinian ranks; has asked Mohammed Amarna (Doctor of Law – Cairo University) wondered: “How we live each day and the … occupation Jassim to our hearts, if not split ends Fsndao to change in favor of?? How to fall asleep our eyes and we We still say I’m from the West Bank and Gaza!! Palestine is One .. enough of the names scattered .. so it came to stress the importance of the Palestinian legitimacy and the transfer of all of our leadership Palestinian Let the people stand up by himself to end the division .. how long will insist on wearing the dress division? ”
He said student David David (spokesman for the students of Arab Media Research Institute) on the importance of the fooled BC rallies in Gaza and the West Bank and abroad and at home for one goal: to bridge the divide Filstiniy behind the legitimacy of President Abu Mazen, and Mohammed Al-Baghdadi (official Palestine Students in the academy naval branch of the Sheraton) In the appeal, saying: “For all the youth of Palestine and they are voice of the nation working to end division to guide the effort against the real enemy of Israel and to establish our Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital. ”
And crossed the press Salsabil Bseiso hoped that culminated in the revolutions of the Palestinian Popular, which was launched both on Facebook-style revolutions in the Arab region to the inevitable outcome in the near future, she said: “We have noticed in recent times in various countries how the collapsed every official of adherence to chair his reign in order to the protection of personal interests and narrow in front of the voice and will of the people reject him; and therefore everyone must learn a lesson and takes care of the national interests of the public to back Palestine as it was and return the brothers loved ones as they were .. Gaza is known flesh sons together enough of the accounting both for differences in our policy only; and we promise to Palestine just do not and to come back the Palestinian social fabric is known for its history as it was to live Palestine .. again ”
The Fady Madhoun (human medicine – University of Alexandria), saying: “came in this student delegation to emphasize the principles established in our dictionary Palestinian We are all talking and his eyes on Palestine, which in the most difficult their situations over the past five years, if we revisit the years of the five that have elapsed in the history of our Snagdna harvested Segmentation is not is that brought us back This could spur us to terminate as soon as .. the Palestinian cause is stronger humanitarian issue passed in human history; and here the aspects of a letter of thanks to the Ambassador of Palestine to assimilate to our demands in order to uphold our voice, hence the call for a protest in all embassies world, because the national unity is the main Mnfzna, Fadi and the message to the brothers to end the division in order not to reach the abyss and said: “We have a lot to go back Palestine as it was before 2005, why not start now ..”.
The sound Talouli embassy official student activities at the end of paragraph hair stand calling for national unity, and concluded by the Palestinian stance on the Palestinian Ohtav revolutionary songs which merged the votes of those present, saying: Hamas and Fatah unity is the foundation.
MESSAGE OF PALESTINIANS STRANDED AT CAIRO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Posted on February 28, 2011 by Omar Karem
Barred from travel to Egypt, Gazans abroad stranded
THE MESSAGE FROM THE PALESTINIANS
MR.BR / Marshal Tantawi
Commanding General of the Egyptian Armed Forces – May God protect him
Peace, Mercy and Blessings of God
Subject: your brothers, your Palestinians son stuck abroad
We hope that you will be the beginning of good health and wellness, and God bless Egypt and its people and its army.
You, the army of Egypt … O best forces of the Earth … O hemispheres Umar ibn al-Aas may Allah be pleased with him … O compelling goats, oh heroes of the Tenth of Ramadan …
His Excellency Commander … Nkelmkm from the reality of history, culture and common destiny, the reality of love for Egypt and its people and its army, and Egypt, which has always stood, without any hesitation as well as Palestine, and provided for the martyrs and the wounded.
We are your sons and brothers trapped in the Arab and Islamic countries, our patients and those with special needs, who are being persecuted by bullets and shells the Israeli occupation, and some of us students who are prevented conditions between them and their families.
We have cut our ways, and we do not have enough money, and now we stay abroad onerous in terms of physical and psychological, this case is a difference between father and son, husband and wife, and the eyes of our children shed tears day and night, and with every tear from the heart asking you to end this suffering, and allow us to return to Palestine.
You have stood with us throughout history, and we are confident that you Sttakermwa allow us to go to our beloved Egypt, so that we can return to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
His Excellency Field Marshal … You know, we suffer from death and destruction, displacement and deprivation of medical treatment, study and work, not hesitate to Israeli occupation for tightening the noose around our necks to kill us, love of life, and you helped in after God _ Almighty _, so we hope that you will not Trdona frustrated; because we know your generosity, which takes place between people , just like the flow of the Nile Egypt’s great.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expresses grave concern over the continued suffering of thousands of Gazans who have been stranded in various countries abroad for more than one month due to emergency measures that prevent their entry onto Egyptian territory through Cairo Airport, currently the only available route for return to Gaza.
According to PCHR information, Palestinians have been denied access to Egypt since the eruption of the uprising in Egypt. On 30 January 2011, Rafah International Crossing Point was closed in both directions and Palestinians flying to Cairo Airport were denied access to Egyptian territory. On 17 February 2011, Rafah crossing was opened in one direction, allowing Palestinians stranded in Egypt to return to Gaza. On 22 February 2011, the crossing was reopened in both directions and hundreds of Gazans permitted to travel via the crossing managed to leave or return to Gaza. On the other hand, Palestinians in different countries of the world wishing to return to Gaza via Egypt are still denied access to Cairo Airport. Airlines received instructions not to transfer Palestinians wishing to return to Gaza via Egypt to Cairo Airport. This has resulted in the suffering of thousands of Palestinians, including dozens of families who travelled abroad and who urgently need to return to Gaza so their children can attend school. Other travelers denied return are patients who underwent surgery or received treatment abroad as well as employees and workers who are in danger of losing their positions of employment.
In view of the above, PCHR:
1. Calls upon President Mahmoud Abbas to intervene promptly and take serious action in order to put an end to the hardship facing Palestinians unable to return to Gaza, instruct Palestinian embassies abroad to assume their responsibilities towards stranded Palestinians, and exert best efforts to ensure their immediate return.
2. Calls upon the Egyptian government to permit the return of Palestinians to Gaza as soon as possible, facilitate their return to Gaza via Egypt and allow freedom of movement of Palestinians travelling to and from the Gaza Strip, especially through Rafah crossing and Cairo International Airport.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Gaza Faces a Strong Protest Lead by Young People To End Internal Division
Posted by on February 28, 2011 by Marivel Guzmans in collaboration with Omar Karem
Square of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City
Gaza, Palestine(Akashma Web Blogs) The Day is March 15, 2011, Palestine Youth have made a call to all sectors of Palestine Society to come forward and unite as one force, forgetting differences of the past. Hamas as the leading Party in Gaza and Fatah as representative of West Bank they should unite their confidence with the people that is tired of so much violence, division and diversion. The occupation have for 62 years worn out their energy, is time to regain their fighter spirit that have characterized Palestinians but United as one Force, because the enemy have rejoice with their division and used it against them. “The People United will not be Defeated” is has been a slogan of fighters for centuries, lets remember that and be One Nation. Gaza and West Banks are districts of Palestine, and Palestine is One.
Gaza is under attack, Israel have stepped up her attacks in the Besieged Gaza Strip and even under such circumstances the Youth of Gaza leading “The Initiative Call Home” staged a protest in the Square of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City before they were ordered to evacuated the Plaza. The protest led by Young Palestinians to end the internal divisions is a sign that the Revolution that started in Tunisia and Egypt has sparked the light in Palestine. There is not to say that they did not want to brake the old rule, but with the air of Revolution and the global support is a good moment to engage the world in their calls for Freedom.
The protest was broken up by security agencies of the Government by force, today they organized a sit-in group where
Young People peacefully gathered to demand an end to the internal divisions, in the Square of the unknown soldier in Gaza City, Palestine. Their demands have been growing stronger since last December when the Youth of Gaza Broke Out, a movement started growing support around the world, when they declare in their Famous “Gaza Youth’s Manifesto For Change” made public by blogger, Opinion Maker Online Newspaper and many others News Outlets around the world.
Such Manifesto was not welcome for factions inside Palestine and for many activists around the world, they saw in this Youth Manifesto more divisions, but in reality was a desperate call for a change.
“F**k Israel!,F**k USA! F**k Hamas!, F**k Fatah!, F**k UN. F**k UNWRA.
We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference. Like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; we want to scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this f*****g situation we live in.” Excerpt from the Gazan Youth’s Manifesto for change.
Said Hassan Farhat, one of the coordinators of youth initiative “Call Home” Monday, said that the security services of the Government blocked a sit in the courtyard of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City to end the internal division in Palestine.
He said in a telephone Farhat told “together”: “A group of young people and the founders of “The Initiative Call Home” visitor in the courtyard of the soldier carrying Palestinian flags and posters but the police officers asked the protesters to withdraw from Square to the young people that started gathering in the Square of the Unknown Soldier.”
Farhat Said: “Despite the rejection of young men to withdrawal they were resolute to sit-in, police officers intensified their presence in the place, and was attended by four security agents dressed in civilian clothes that mix with the crowd and arrested Ahmed Arar coordinator of The Initiative Call Home among the demonstrators and took him to an unknown place and in addition to three others activists.”
Demands to End the Division:
From here we call on the governments of the West Bank and Gaza to respond to the legitimate demands of the people:
1 – the release all political detainees in the prisons of the PA and Hamas
2 – the end of all forms of media campaigns against each others
3 – the resignation of the governments of Haniyeh and Fayyad to re-build a government of national unity agreed by all Palestinian factions representing the Palestinian people.
4 – the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization to contain all the Palestinian factions and get back to its initial aim: Palestine’s freedom
5 – the announcement of the freeze of negotiations until the full compatibility between the various Palestinian factions on a political program
6 – the end of all forms of security coordination with the Zionist enemy
7 – the organization of presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously in the time chosen by all the factions
To Be or Not To Be
The initiative called for protests to call home in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and abroad to end the division.
For his part, said Mizan Center for Human Rights; “Had been almost a heavy police presence in the yard of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City at around the morning of Monday of February 28, and they beat the coordinator of the campaign Call Home Ahmed Atawneh, where eyewitnesses have reported that he had been beaten before being stopped by police and transport out of the place and the whereabouts where unknown.”
This pool of about (20) people, including journalists on Monday morning, in response to a call launched by the campaign “Call Home”. The invitations were distributed via the Internet and short messages via mobile phones.
The invitations Identify Square Unknown Soldier as a center for gathering in the Gaza Strip, after the lifting of the sitters banners people want to end the division, people want to end the occupation, end the internal division is the way to building a Palestine State), according to eyewitnesses, one police personnel to Atawneh and got between them altercation then the police beat him and when journalists tried to take pictures of the attack warned members of the police take any photos.
The participants broke up the rest of the demonstration after the security forces attack, and came to the place in a civilian silver car and Atawneh was forced to step out and taken to an undisclosed location.
Mizan Center for Human Rights in a statement received by the Agency “together” connote concern over the use of force in the resolution of a peaceful gathering, adding that the Public Meetings Law No. (12) for the year 1998, provides special protection measures to ensure the right of citizens to organize public meetings, without the requirement to obtain a prior authorization, where only actions on the notice in writing to the governor or police chief before (48) hours in advance of the date of the meeting and for the police to make its observations on the details of peaceful assembly for the purpose of protecting and ensuring the safety of participants, and without prejudice to the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, before they are in writing, in the absence of receipt by the Organization of any written answer has the right to organize public meeting in a timely manner. Which is what I think they Astvuoh organizers notify the Ministry of the Interior.
PCHR calls upon the dismissed government in Gaza to open an investigation into the incident, calling for meetings to facilitate the peaceful and protected by the law enforcement bodies.
According to Hassan Farhat, a participant in the sit-in, and the Last Sunday morning in the courtyard of the soldier, that the coordinator of the campaign has notified the Ministry of Interior, under the book was delivered in the ministry’s headquarters complex, located in government ministries (Abu Khadra) on 02.24.2011, did not receive a response.
It is noteworthy that the activist Hassan Farhat has a “memorandum of review issued by the Department of custody and interrogation in the Internal Security Agency should come as 2/3/2011 in the central governorate.
Farhat also pointed out that the activity has not been implemented in the West because of calls to the security organs of the coordinators who have declared their names earlier.
The unrest inside Palestine have been felt since December after the Manifesto of the youth of Gaza Broke out, in a response to the unwelcome for their request the Youth of Gaza released a second document on January 05, 2011.
“We’re NOT calling for a political coup, let’s be clear on this. We’re young people who want to work for the PEOPLE, we denounce the misery we live in, we denounce their division, and reject their fight, because they are not helping us. But more than Fatah and Hamas, who remains Palestinians just like us, ABOVE ALL we denounce the Occupier & its puppet the International Community who fails, day after day, in its duty to impose sanctions on “Israel”. From Do not Distort Our Speech
Such divisions are sweet deal for Israel who entertained the idea for many years to brake down Palestine in two Lands and disengage completely from Gaza.
Hezbollah Strong Army
Gaza have become a liability for Israel as their policies and political ideas are back up by Hezbollah a strong political party in Lebanon and sworn enemy of Israel. Israel was defeated by Hezbollah back in 2006 and they have become stronger than ever.
If There got to be Freedom in any society, Justice must be the base of the same. Human Rights is an inalienable right of every human being, being Gaza, US, Germany, Lebanon, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba(should not exist),Cuba, China, Iran, Mexico, Congo, Russia..or any place on Earth that humans co-habit under any authority of any type.
The right to disagree, the right to have a different opinion, or different feelings is a right that we all humans have a primordial born right, it calls dissent from the Status Quo, governments of the world dissenters are not criminals, they are free minders that choose their own path, and oppression only make them more aware of the situation that you want to force them to be.
This right is inalienable is part of the human rights that we all must enjoy as a citizen of this Earth.
Palestine-Israel War
Posted On February 27, 2011 by Omar Karem
| 1948 | 1956 | 1967 | 1968 | 1973 | 1982 | 1987 | 2000 | 2006 |
United Nations Security Council
First Arab-Israeli War , 15 May 1948
Arab opposition to an Israeli state began after the Balfour Declaration 1917, which supported the idea of a Jewish national homeland. In the 1920s there were anti-Zionist riots in Palestine, after the British mandate government allowed thousands of Jews to immigrate to Palestine from all over the world.
In 1936 an Arab revolt led to a British royal commission that recommended partition (approved by United Nations 1947), but rejected by the Arabs.
When it became clear that the British intended to leave by May 15, leaders of the Yishuv decided (as they claim) to implement that part of the partition plan calling for establishment of a Jewish state. In Tel Aviv on May 14 the Provisional State Council, formerly the National Council, “representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the World Zionist Movement,” proclaimed the “establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) … open to the immigration of Jews from all the countries of their dispersion.”
On May 15 the armies of Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab guerrillas who had been fighting Jewish forces since November 1947. The war now became an international conflict, the first Arab-Israeli War.
The Arabs failed to prevent establishment of a Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The frontiers defined in the armistice agreements remained until they were altered by Israel’s conquests during the Six-Day War in 1967.
“Battle of the Roads“. The Arab League sponsored Arab Liberation Army, composed of Palestinian Arabs and Arabs from other Middle Eastern countries, attacked Jewish communities in Palestine, and Jewish traffic on major roads. The Arab forces mainly concentrated on major roadways in an attempt to cut off Jewish communities from each other. Arab forces at that time had engaged in sporadic and unorganized ambushes since the riots of December 1947, and began to make organized attempts to cut off the highway linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem, the city’s only supply route. The Arab Army cut off supplies and controlled several strategic vantage points overlooking the sole highway linking Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, enabling them to fire at convoys going to the city. By late March 1948, the vital road that connected Tel Aviv to western Jerusalem, where about 16% of all Jews in the Palestinian region lived, was cut off and under siege.
April 6-12, 1948 : Operation Nachshon. The Haganah decided to launch a major military counteroffensive to break the siege of Jerusalem. On 6 April the Haganah and its strike force, the Palmach, in an offensive to secure strategic points, took al-Qastal, an important roadside town 2 kilometers west of Deir Yassin. But intense fighting lasted for days more as control of that key village remained contested.
April 9, 1948 : Throughout the siege on Jerusalem, Jewish convoys tried to reach the city to alleviate the food shortage, which, by April, had become critical. On 9 April 1948, IZL-Lehi forces attacked Deir Yassin, as part of Operation Nachshon to break the siege of western Jerusalem. On Deir Yassin massacre, Irgun and Lehi members attack the Arab village of Deir Yassin, killing between 100 and 120 Arabs civilians.
May 15, 1948 : Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan, Holy War Army, Arab Liberation Army, and local Arabs attack the new Jewish state with the intent of destroying it. The resulting 1948 Arab-Israeli War lasts for 13 months. By the end of the war, about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs leave as refugees for a variety of reasons among them, including: avoidance of crossfire, anticipation of war, expulsion, and the Jews massacre against number of Arab villages.
June 1948 : Violent confrontation between the Israel Defense Forces under the command of David Ben-Gurion, and the paramilitary Jewish group Irgun known as The Altalena Affair results in the dismantlement of the Irgun, Lehi, and all Israeli paramilitary organizations operating outside the IDF.
April 1949 : Israel concludes Armistice Agreements with neighboring countries. The territory of the British Mandate of Palestine is divided between the State of Israel, the Kingdom of the Jordan (changed from Transjordan) and Egypt.
Ben Gurion orders 1,500 combat soldiers to liberate the road to a besieged Jerusalem. In early 1948, David Ben Gurion commands a concentrated force of 1,500 soldiers to puncture the road leading to a besieged Jerusalem. The operation, called “Nachshon Operation”, was a turning point in the Independence War: This was the first time that the defense forces were commanded to conquer an area that was defined as Arab territory.
Suez campaign , 29 Oct – 4 Nov 1956
During the 1950s there was considerable tension between Israel and Egypt, which, under President Nasser, had become a leader in the Arab world. His nationalization of the Suez Canal 1956 provided an opportunity for Israel with Britain and France, to attack Egypt and occupy a part of Palestine that Egypt had controlled since 1949, the Gaza Strip , from which Israel was forced by UN and US pressure to withdraw 1957 .
In 1973 Egypt joined Syria in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. The two Arab states struck unexpectedly on October 6, which fell on Yom Kippur , Israel’s holiest fast day .
After crossing the Suez Canal the Arab forces gain a lot of advanced positions in Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights and manage to defeat the Israeli forces for more then three weeks.
Israeli forces with a massive U.S. economic and military assistance managed to stop the Arab forces after a three-week struggle and defeat with the cost of many casualties,and the Arabs strong showing won them support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and most of the world’s developing countries.
Israel, forced to compete with the nearly unlimited Arab resources, was faced with a serious financial setback. Only massive U.S. economic and military assistance enabled it to redress the balance, but even American aid was unable to prevent a downward spiral of the economy.
In an effort to encourage a peace settlement, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon charged his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, with the task of negotiating agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Kissinger managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights during 1974.
Six-Days war , 5-10 June 1967
War of Attrition 1968 – 1970
During the 1950s there was considerable tension between Israel and Egypt, which, under President Nasser, had become a leader in the Arab world. His nationalization of the Suez Canal 1956 provided an opportunity for Israel with Britain and France, to attack Egypt and occupy a part of Palestine that Egypt had controlled since 1949, the Gaza Strip , from which Israel was forced by UN and US pressure to withdraw 1957 .
In 1973 Egypt joined Syria in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. The two Arab states struck unexpectedly on October 6, which fell on Yom Kippur , Israel’s holiest fast day .
After crossing the Suez channel the Arab forces gain a lot of advanced positions in Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights and manage to defeat the Israeli forces for more then three weeks.
Israeli forces with a massive U.S. economic logistic and military assistance managed to stop the Arab forces after a three-week struggle and defeat with the cost of many casualties,and the Arabs strong showing won them support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and most of the world’s developing countries.
Israel, forced to compete with the nearly unlimited Arab resources, was faced with a serious financial setback. Only massive U.S. economic and military assistance enabled it to redress the balance, but even American aid was unable to prevent a downward spiral of the economy.
In an effort to encourage a peace settlement, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon charged his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, with the task of negotiating agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Kissinger managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights during 1974.
October War , 6-24 Oct 1973
From 1978 the presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon led to Arab raids on Israel and Israeli retaliatory incursions.
On 6 June 1982 Israel launched a full-scale invasion. By 14 June Beirut was encircled, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Syrian forces were evacuated mainly to Syria 21-31 Aug.
In Feb 1985 there was a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the country without any gain or losses incurred. Israel maintains an occupied area called as a ‘security zone’ in South Lebanon and supports the South Lebanese Army Militia of Lahad, both were occupying the south of Lebanon to defend Israelis from Palestinian attacks, and both carried out number of massacres against Lebanese and Palestinian people.
Israel’s complicity in massacres in two Palestinian refugee camps increased Arab hostility and many other massacres like Beirut, Nabattiyeh, Abbasiyeh, Qana with hundreds of Lebanese civilians killed by Israelis. Talks between Israel and Lebanon , between Dec 1982 and May 1983, resulted in an agreement, drawn up by US secretary of state George Shultz, calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon within three months. Syria refused to acknowledge the agreement, and left some 30,000 troops, with about 7,000 PLO members, in northeast, Israel retaliated by refusing to withdraw its forces from the south.
Meanwhile the problems in Lebanon continued. In 1984, under pressure from Syria, President Gemayel of Lebanon abrogated the 1983 treaty with Israel , but the government of national unity in Tel Aviv continued to plan the withdrawal of its forces. Guerrilla groups of the Lebanese resistant on south of Lebanon started their resistant against the Israeli occupation since 1985 when the main important resistant group in Lebanon which is Hezbollah was founded. Most of the withdrawal was complete by June 1985 except the south of Lebanon of what so called the ‘security zone’. The south of Lebanon was liberated by resistant operations when Israel withdraw in 25/5/2000. Israel still occupying Shebaa farms and other small areas until today.
Lebanon invasion , 1982
Palestinian uprising refers to a series of violent incidents between Palestinians and Israelis between 1987 and approximately 1990.
On December 8, 1987, an uprising began in Jabalya where hundreds burned tires and attacked the Israel Defense Forces stationed there. The uprising spread to other Palestinian refugee camps and eventually to Jerusalem, the eastern part of which was and is occupied by Israel. On December 22, the United Nations Security Council condemned Israel for violating Geneva Conventions due to the number of Palestinian deaths in these first few weeks of the Intifada.
Much of the Palestinian violence was low-tech; dozens of Palestinian teenagers would confront patrols of Israeli soldiers, showering them with rocks. However, at times this tactic gave way to Molotov cocktail attacks, over 100 hand grenade attacks and more than 500 attacks with guns or explosives. Many Israeli soldiers were killed this way. The IDF, in contrast, possessed the latest weaponry and defense technologies.
In 1988, the Palestinians initiated a nonviolent movement to withhold taxes collected and used by Israel to pay for the occupation of territories. When time in prison didn’t stop the activists, Israel crushed the boycott by imposing heavy fines while seizing and disposing of the equipment, furnishings, and goods from local stores, factories, and even homes. On April 19, 1988, a leader of the PLO, Abu Jihad, was assassinated in Tunis. During the resurgence of rioting that followed, about 16 Palestinians were killed. In November of the same year and October of the next, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolutions condemning Israel.
As the Intifada progressed, Israel introduced various riot control methods that had the effect of reducing the number of Palestinian fatalities. Another contributor to the high initial casualties was Yitzhak Rabin’s aggressive stance towards the Palestinians (notably including an exhortation to the IDF to “break the bones” of the demonstrators). His successor Moshe Arens subsequently proved to have a better understanding of pacification, which perhaps reflects in the lower casualty rates for the following years.
Attempts at the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were made at the Madrid Conference of 1991.
Intifada , 1987 – 1991
On September 28, 2000 the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, with a Likud party delegation, and surrounded by hundreds of Israeli riot police, visited the mosque compound of the Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque compound is the first Qibla of Muslims and the third holiest site in Islam. It also contains the area for the most holy site in Judaism. The pretext for Sharon’s visit of the mosque compound was to check complaints by Israeli archeologists that Muslim religious authorities had vandalized archeological remains beneath the surface of the mount during the conversion of the presumed Solomon’s Stables area into a mosque.
A group of Palestinian dignitaries came to protest the visit, as did three Arab Knesset Members. With the dignitaries watching from a safe distance.Palestinians saw Sharon’s visit as an assault on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. For this reason, the whole conflict is known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. On September 29, 2000, the day after Sharon’s visit, following Friday prayers, large uprising broke out around Old Jerusalem during which several Palestinian demonstrators were shot dead. Already in the same day, the September 29, 2000, demonstrations broke out in the West Bank. In the days that followed, demonstrations erupted all over the West Bank and Gaza.
Al-Aqsa Intifada 2000 –
On September 28, 2000 the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, with a Likud party delegation, and surrounded by hundreds of Israeli riot police, visited the mosque compound of the Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque compound is the first Qibla of Muslims and the third holiest site in Islam. It also contains the area for the most holy site in Judaism. The pretext for Sharon’s visit of the mosque compound was to check complaints by Israeli archeologists that Muslim religious authorities had vandalized archeological remains beneath the surface of the mount during the conversion of the presumed Solomon’s Stables area into a mosque.
A group of Palestinian dignitaries came to protest the visit, as did three Arab Knesset Members. With the dignitaries watching from a safe distance.Palestinians saw Sharon’s visit as an assault on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. For this reason, the whole conflict is known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. On September 29, 2000, the day after Sharon’s visit, following Friday prayers, large uprising broke out around Old Jerusalem during which several Palestinian demonstrators were shot dead. Already in the same day, the September 29, 2000, demonstrations broke out in the West Bank. In the days that followed, demonstrations erupted all over the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel-Gaza Conflict 2006
Israel maintains that it mobilized thousands of troops in order to suppress Qassam rocket fire against its civilian population and to secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. It is estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 heavy Israeli artillery shells have been fired into Gaza since September 2005, killing 80 Palestinians in 6 months. On the Palestinian side, approximately 1,000 Qassam missiles are believed to have been fired into Israel.
Israel has stated that it will withdraw from Gaza and end the operation as soon as Shalit is released. The Palestinians say the assault is aimed at toppling the democratically elected Hamas-led government and at destabilizing the Palestinian National Authority, citing the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as a power station and the captures of government and parliament members.
After Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan, pulling 9 thousand settlers from Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, tensions had remained high in Gaza due to the continued shelling of areas in Israel with Qassam rocket attacks launched by Palestinians from Gaza into areas such as the Israeli city of Sderot, reported to have exceeded 800 rockets in the past seven months. Between the end of March and the end of May 2006, Israel fired at least 5,100 artillery shells into the Gaza Strip Qassam launching areas in an attempt to stop them from firing.
On June 9, during or shortly after an Israeli operation, an explosion occurred on a busy Gaza beach, killing eight Palestinian civilians.Other Israeli missile attacks included one on the Gaza highway on June 13 that killed 11 Palestinians and injured 30, and on June 20 that killed 3 Palestinians and wounded 15.
Hamas formally withdrew from its 16-month ceasefire on June 10, and began openly taking responsibility for the ongoing Qassam rocket attacks.
On June 24, 2006, Israeli commandos entered the Gaza Strip in the first capture raid into the Strip since Israel pulled out of Gaza in September 2005. In the raid they captured two Palestinians, identified by neighbors as brothers Osama Muamar, 31, and Mustafa, 20, who Israel claims are Hamas militants. Noam Chomsky has claimed in a recent interview that these two Palestinians were civilians, a doctor and his brother. Chomsky claims not to know the fate the kidnapped men.
CHOMSKY: There’s a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it’s a very rational theme: “Let’s delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we’ll ‘build facts on the ground.'” So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what’s left of the indigenous population.
On June 25, 2006, armed Palestinians crossed the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel via a makeshift tunnel and attacked an Israel Defense Forces post. During the morning attack, two Palestinian militants and two Israel Defense Force soldiers were killed and four others wounded, in addition to Corporal Gilad Shalit, who suffered a broken left hand and a light shoulder wound. Hamas claimed that the attack was carried out in response to the death of the Ralia family on north Gaza beach a few weeks before.
Shalit’s captors issued a series of statements demanding the release of all female Palestinian prisoners and all Palestinian prisoners under the age of 18. The statements came from Ezz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing Hamas), the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas), and the Army of Islam. More than 8,000 Palestinians are held as prisoners by the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Prisons Service. Approximately two thirds of these prisoners were convicted in court, while around ten percent are held without charge.
History Of Palestine
Posted on February 27, 2011 byOmar Karem
الخطة التفصيلية لكل محاضرة
سيتم وضع خطة تفصيلية لكل محاضرة على النحو التالي :
• أهداف الوحدة الدراسية وملخص لما سيتم تناوله في المحاضرة.
• عرض المادة العلمية بالاستعانة بالوسائط المساندة.
• ذكر للموضوع الرئيسي الذي سيتم تناوله في المحاضرة القادمة.
ثالثاً: حلقات النقاش:
العمل على تفعيل حلقتي نقاش للمقرر،الأولى للدارسين ويدير هذه الحلقة المشرفون الأكاديميون في المناطق التعليمية، أما حلقة النقاش الثانية فستكون للمشرفين الأكاديميين في المناطق التعليمية والذين يشرفون على مقرر تاريخ القدس تناقش فيها كافة المسائل الفنية والعلمية المتعلقة بالمقرر، ويدير هذه الحلقة منسق المقرر.
رابعا ً: التعيينات:
سوف يكون هناك تعيين واحد شاملاً لجميع وحدات المقرر عن طريق إرساله عبر الانترنت إلى الدارسين.
خامساً: الامتحانات:
ستكون الامتحانات النصفية والنهائية مركزية لكافة المناطق التعليمية .
سادسا ً: مصادر التعلم والقراءات المساعدة:
سيتم وضع رابط على موقع المقرر يشير الى مصادر التعلم والقراءات المساعدة للدارسين للاستزادة حول المادة العلمية .
سابعا ً: دور كل من المشرف الرئيسي ( منسق المقرر ) والمشرف الأكاديمي للمقرر في المنطقة التعليمية:
يمكن توزيع الأدوار بين المشرفين على النحو التالي :
1- منسق المقرر :
1 . إعداد وتقديم المحاضرات ( Video Streaming ) على مدار الفصل الدراسي.
2. إدارة حلقة النقاش الخاصة بالمشرفين الأكاديميين في المناطق التعليمية.
3. إعداد الامتحانات النصفية والنهائية ( مركزية ).
4. إعداد التعيين.
5. الإشراف العام على تنفيذ خطة المقرر.
2- المشرفون الأكاديميين (المساعدون) في المناطق التعليمية:
1. تنفيذ اللقاءات الوجاهية كل في منطقته التعليمية.
2. تصحيح الامتحانات والتعيينات.
3. إدارة حلقة النقاش الخاصة بالمقرر مع الطلبة والرد على استفساراتهم وتساؤلاتهم.
4. التواصل مع منسق المقرر.
5. إرشاد الطلبة للتفاعل مع محاضرات video streaming
مع الاحترام والتقدير
WHEN Israeli Jets Bombard Gaza Strip
Posted on February 27, 2011 by Omar Karem from Gaza, Palestine in collaboration with Marivel Guzman
How to be safe and help others?
Israel bomber plane
How to react and help others in Gaza if Israel bombard this tiny peace of land in the Mediterranean?
Gaza more than an occupied nation under siege look more like a big open prison, where close to two millions residents live under the military boot of Israel.
With the daily military excursions invading our land and air space, disrupting every bit of life in Gaza.
When the Israel planes come in the middle of the night blasting their sonar bombs, braking windows, and dreams, what we suppose to do?.
When the tanks cross inside Gaza destroying farm land, and the bulldozers come to destroy the houses and business of Palestinians, how we suppose to react?.
When the F16 show up sending missiles to an unarmed population, inflicting terror, destruction and death, what we do?
When the Jenin Massacre occurred ambulances were not allowed to enter the refugee camp for 12 days to help the wounded, how Palestinians supposed to help each other when Israel bombard Gaza?
Do not be gross with the next images, they were Palestinians like me before they were shred to pieces by Israel Bombs, I do not like these images, and I do not want to be one of those images. I hate those images, but when they were alive they were part of Jenin Camp Population, please! do not be gross out. Have pity for us, be compassionate and tell our story, our true story to the world, we need help.
By Jennifer Loewenstein Article Posted 19 April 2002 :”Eyewitness Report of the Atrocities in Jenin, Palestine”
http://www.aztlan.net/jeninmassacre.htm
Don’t believe what CNN and BBC among other western news agencies are telling you. You be the Opinion Maker. Ask why can be an investigation; why it must be called a “humanitarian tragedy” rather than a crime against humanity; why the EU has not imposed sanctions on Israel for its actions; why no international monitoring force is immediately leaving for the region; why Israeli political and military spokespeople are telling reporters that “only (sic) 45 people died” and that they were all armed “militants”. Why no one challenges these comments or reminds these spokespeople that Israel conducted a massive military offensive against people who have the right to resist the occupation of their land. If your blood doesn’t run cold when US President George W. Bush calls Ariel Sharon a “man of peace” then you’re getting nothing but lies packaged as news and information by a massive propaganda machine. Americans, you are paying for the dehumanization and destruction of an entire people. Jenin is only the most ominous and recent reminder of where Israel’s 54 year old policies against the Palestinians are leading.
Sabra and Shatila is another of the massacres perpetrated by Israel on unarmed population, and gone unchallenged by US, UN Club and other Israel allies. Why? Who is going to bring Israel to Justice?
The Sabra and Shatila Refugee Camp Massacre took place between 15 to 18 September 1982. This massacre is considered the bloodiest single atrocity committed against the Palestinian people in living history.
Can the world please tell us, how after 62 years of empty talks and promises, how we suppose to sit and cross our arms and wait for another attack, while the US keeps stopping resolution in The UN security council.
We the residents of Gaza are fighting an every day battle, with little or no arms to defend ourselves.
What can we do?
And the world leaders after all the carnage Israel have done to our brothers and sisters Palestinians in the last 62 years, we are portray as criminals and terrorist, what we need to do to be seen as we have been since Israel was created? The displaced population, murdered, terrorized and wronged.
Why would the US veto any resolution that promise justice for Palestinians? How can they go to sleep at night knowing that we are being massacred, we are being exterminated slowly.
Can you see that Israel is committing genocide? How many of us need to die under Israel war planes and tanks before someone come to our rescue?
I live in Gaza, Palestine and I m tired of waiting for the world to help us to bring justice and peace, at least the certainly that tomorrow we can have a full day of peace, a whole night without sonar bombs, a day where I can plan my day without having to be worry if I will come back home to write or enjoy a peaceful dinner with my family.
I do not want to be part of the numbers, I want to Live in Peace and Freedom, I want my land back.
What can I do when Israel jets bombard Gaza again?
“I m not just another Palestinian writing about the horrors that we are forced to live every day, I m a human being, a young Palestinian that is a witness and victim of Israel criminality. I do not know other life but this one that I m narrating to you, it is in my mind, in my heart, my genes, my reality is now, in this moment only, I can not have the luxury to dream a better future, I do not see another future but my present reality.” Omar Karem
During Gaza Massacre 2009, that the Main Stream Media insist in calling it a war, where more than 1400 Palestinians died under the bombs, and hundreds were burn alive under the white phosphorous bombs, we were like sitting ducks, unable to defend ourselves, we lived in a giant prison, where there is no way out. We were continuously bombarded for 22 days, and the world did not moved a finger to help us.
The US did not even call Israel to slap her in her wrist, for the contrary they were accomplices in our slaughter, as most of the bombs, white phosphorous and other weapons are either made in US, or directly financed by American dollars.
What the world is waiting to say “Enough” , will they want to wait 50 years after Israel have exterminate us, and then declare it in for “HISTORY” A GENOCIDE, as happen with so many massacres gone unnoticed in the world?
If the US and UN club do not change their position about Israel, me and the other close to 2 millions Gaza Residents have the same bleak future as me. It is not fair, we all born equals and free.
Tell me, What can I do next time that Israel War Planes come and Bombard Gaza again?
What We Should Do If Israel Attack Gaza?
Posted By Omar Karem
بعد انتهاء القصف:-
• يتم وعلى الفور فتح الطرق المؤدية للأماكن التي تعرضت للقصف بمعرفة الأشغال العامة والبلدية لتأمين وصول سيارات الإسعاف والإطفاء و الإنقاذ والشرطة وخدمات الكهرباء والصرف الصحي وسلطة المياه0
• تقديم الإسعافات الأولية للمصابين ونقلهم للمستشفيات فورا 0
• إخلاء والشهداء من مسرح الحدث0
• الابتعاد فور مشاهدة إي أجسام مشبوهة من مخلفات الجيش والحرص التام على عدم لمسها أو الاقتراب منها خاصة الأطفال و إبلاغ الشرطة – الدفاع المدني – الهلال الأحمر الفلسطيني فورا0
• عدم التجمهر والابتعاد عن أماكن القصف خوفا من حدوث انهيارات لبعض الأسطح أو الجدران أو الأعمدة أو الهوائيات أو خزانات المياه إلى 000 الخ
• الأجهزة الأمنية تقوم بتأمين المنازل والمنشأت العامة خوفا من تعرضها للسرقة0
• إعلان فرق الإنقاذ عن الأشخاص الذين نعرف أنهم محاصرين أو مدفونين تحت الأنقاض.
• تنظيف المواد المنسكبة على الأرض و القابلة للاشتعال على الفور مثل الكحول و المواد البترولية و الدهان و غيرها.
• عدم إثارة الصخب و عدم المبالغة في حالة الشخص و حالات الآخرين المصابين.
• عند تعرض منازلنا لأضرار جسيمة يكون علينا لزاما مغادرتها و نصحب معنا أوعية الماء و بعض المواد الغذائية و الأدوية العادية و الخاصة ( الأمراض المزمنة) و الوثائق الشخصية.
• عدم دخول المباني المتصدعة و الاقتراب من المنشات المصابة.
• عدم التسكع في الشوارع لمشاهدة ما قد حصل و الابتعاد عنها لتتمكن آليات الإنقاذ و الإسعاف و الأمن من العبور.
1- الإنقـــــــــــــــاذ:-
مباشرة و بعد انتهاء عملية الصف تبدأ عملية الإنقاذ الفوري من طرف المتطوعين و السكان أنفسهم بوسائل تقليدية و بسيطة و محدودة، و الإسعاف الأولي يجب القيام به في نفس المكان الذي يوجد فيه المصاب، وهنا تتضح لنا ضرورة تكوين المسعفين في كل المجتمعات، أو تعليم بعض العناصر الواعية من السكان و تلقينهم المبادئ الأساسية، للقيام بمبادرات مستحسنة من شانها أن تنقذ حياة الإنسان0 و أثناء عمليات الإنقاذ قد يتم العثور على جثت لشهداء ، وأحيانا قد يصعب التعرف على هويتها ، و إن لم يتم التعرف على هوية الشهداء تجمع الجثث و تدفن في أقرب وقت ممكن.
2- الإسعاف الفوري للجرحى: –
حسب جسامة الحادثة، و عدد الجرحى الذين هم في حاجة إلى علاج خاص أوالى إجراء عمليات جراحية، لنطرح مشكلة علاج هؤلاء الجرحى. لأن عدد الأسرة بالمستشفيات قد لا يكفي أحيانا ، أما التلف الذي قد يحصل في شبكة الهاتف، وشبكة الطرق و البنايات فإنه يعرقل إجراء عمليات نقل الجرحى إلى المستشفيات ، ولهذا نشأت فكرة المستشفى الميداني المتنقل و الذي يحتوي على جميع أجهزة الجراحة الحديثة، الشيء الذي يسمح للفرق الطبية بالقيام بعملها في ظروف حسنة، وفي اقرب وقت ممكن، وقرب مكان الحادثة.
3- إيواء المنكوبين:-
يتراوح عدد الأفراد الذين يصبحون بدون مأوى بين العشرات والآلاف حسب نوعية الكارثة. فيجب حماية المنكوبين، و خصوصا الأطفال منهم و النساء، و العجزة من تقلبات الطقس، وتزويدهم بما يحتاجون إليه من غداء، وماء صالح للشرب، وأغطية و لباس و دواء و في انتظار وجود حل دائم لمشكلة المنكوبين، تنظم الحياة في مخيمات تقام خصيصا لهذا الغرض، و تسند لبعض المتطوعين أو المسئولين مهام خاصة بالسكان ليقوموا بأنشطة إدارية و اجتماعية. و يتعلق الأمر خصيصا بأطر الصحة و متطوعي الهلال الأحمر، و المنظمات ذات النشاط الإنساني، التي توفر أطباء، وممرضين ومسعفين ليقوموا بعلاج المرضى، وبعمليات وقائية متعددة.
WHEN ISRAEL ATTACK WHAT WE SHOULD DO?
Posted On February 26, 2011 by Omar Karem
ترجع معظم الإصابات و الحوادث الناجمة عن القصف إلى الأسباب التالية:
– القذائف والعبوات ورصاص القناصة0
– انهيار المباني جزئيا أو كليا.
– ردود الفعل البشرية المتهورة نتيجة الذعر.
– الحرائق المتفاقمة بسبب نقص مياه الإطفاء أو لعدم تمكن فرق الإطفاء والإسعاف0 من الوصول للمكان0
– الأثاث المتساقط و الثريات الزجاجية أو المعدنية و الأغراض الأخرى.
– انهيار أعمدة و كوابل الكهرباء و الهاتف.
قبل حدوث القصف:-
o استكشاف أكثر الأماكن توفيرا للحماية في المنزل و تعريف جميع أفراد العائلة بها.
o إغلاق مصادر الغاز والطاقة و التخلص من السوائل البترولية المخزنة المختلفة ولا يسمح ببقائها داخل المنازل0
o تعريف أفراد الأسرة بأماكن المفاتيح الرئيسية لمصادر الطاقة في المنزل و تدريبهم على كيفية استعمالها في فصل التيار الكهربائي و إغلاق شبكة المياه ومحابس الغاز في حالة الطوارئ.
o فتح الأبواب والنوافذ و أبواب الدواليب والخزن0
o قم بجمع الأموال و المعادن الثمينة والأوراق الرسمية والمستندات الخاصة والعامة ووضعها داخل حقيبة خاصة0
o تأمين سلالم النجاة من خلال إزالة أي عوائق تعرقل عملية إستخدامه0
o تجهيز حقيبة إسعاف أولى وبعض أنواع الأدوية المطلوبة لذوي الأمراض المزمنة و التأكد من جودة وجاهريه وصلاحية هذه الأغراض للاستخدام.
o تخزين كميات كافية من الأطعمة المحفوظة والمعلبات و ماء الشرب0
o الاحتفاظ براديو وكشاف إنارة يدوي يعملان ببطارية مع الاحتفاظ ببطاريات احتياط 0
o وضع شريط لاصق عرض 10 سم على الألواح الزجاجية بشكل مربعات0
o إنزال الأشياء الثقيلة عن أسطح الخزن والرفوف و اللوحات و أحواض الزهور0
أثناء حدوث القصف:-
عدم الوقوف مقابل شرفات ونوافذ و وأسطح المنازل0
إذا كنت تقود سيارة توقف على الفور بجانب الطريق وقم بفتح النوافذ وإيقاف محرك السارة وتوجه لمكان أمن0
التنقل والسير داخل المنزل أو الشقة عن طريق الزحف أرضا ويمنع منعا باتا استخدام المصاعد الكهربائية0
عدم شغل الهاتف والمحمول إلا عند الحاجة الماسة والضرورية جدا0
التدخل الفوري لإخماد أي حريق قد يحدث باستخدام أجهزة الإطفاء المتوفرة0
النزول إلى الأدوار السفلى ( يفضل الجلوس على سلم البناية ) في حال عدم وجود ملاجئ0
المحافظة على الهدوء وعدم الارتباك و الفزع والخوف وطمأنة وتهدئة الأطفال0
متابعة المحطات الوطنية المحلية من خلال مذياع يعمل بالبطارية0
الالتزام والتقيد التام بالتعليمات الصادرة عن الدفاع المدني والهلال الأحمر والشرطة0
استخدم سلالم النجاة عند الطوارئ دون التوتر و الخوف والفزع مع الحرص الشديد على عدم التزاحم و التدافع0
الابتعاد عن المباني و خاصة المباني القديمة.
الابتعاد عن أبراج التوتر العالي و المنحدرات و الجدران العالية المعرضة للانهيار ( الأسوار).
لا تحاول العودة إلى المنزل إلى أن ينتهي القصف0
إطلاق سراح الحيوانات الأليفة فهي ستتدبر أمرها بنفسها.
A Nation Under Siege
Posted on February 22, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Palestine: A Nation Under Siege
Life is not easy in Gaza, Palestine. Palestinians are in a continuous battle for survival, Physical and Emotionally. Israel makes sure that the population feel unsafe on their persona and their future.
The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one.
Israel continual excursions in Gaza air space and in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
For more than Six Decades, Palestinians parents have tried to give their children a better future, they have tried to send their children to foreign schools and Universities, or have them married to other Palestinians that have ‘successfully’ established in the ‘Exile’, two main reasons push them to do this:
– To save them from their uncertain future
– Guarantee the future of Palestine.
The seed and future of a Nation reside in every human.
Culture of Palestine.
Anybody that have made it outside of Palestine have the responsibility in their hands to grow as a Nation on the exile and to keep the history of the land from being corrupted, as well as the costumes, and traditional recipes intact.
Every year few Palestinians manage to escape the daily struggle that is living inside a Territory Occupied by a Military Power, specially the people of Gaza where every day more and more try to cross to freedom using what they called Under the Line (illegally crossing from the tunnels). Another modality of human trafficking with their consent but without the authorization of their local Government.
The series of Tunnels that started as illegal corridors to import products, goods and construction material to Gaza, have become part of the official Gazan bureaucracy as Hamas control the import/export of products and they issue permits to dig tunnels.
The people that have escaped through the tunnels have exhausted all the official mechanism such visas, medical care and scholarships as a last resort they use the tunnels to leave, not easy task because they see themselves exposed to the greed of the tunnel operators that take bribes as a payment, after all they are exporting prohibited merchandise. and they encounter another obstacle the handles in Egyptian side that have to be paid as well, and
transported them to the closest Port to take Ships to sail out of Egypt or to the Airport, every step of the way is a risky business for Palestinians as they are not well perceive by the Egyptian authorities, the sentence for being in Egyptian territory is 6 months to a year, step price to paid for trying to get a better future.
“As all of us watched recently on CNN, BBC and Aljazeera news networks, Gaza is being subjected to a new style of holocaust. What the Gazans have to counter the IDF’s state-of-the art high-tech weapons with? They have their right to resist, and they improvise in making their primitive missiles. After all, they are imprisoned by the IDF.
Gazans are denied the necessities of existence. Why? Don’t we campaign for animal protection? Don’t we argue with the Japanese over whaling, don’t we pass laws against foxhunting? Why then ignore what is happening to the millions of refugees from Palestine? They are under attack on daily basis, for demanding the implantations of the UN resolutions that definitely granted them the right to return to their homes. The irony is that the same resolutions gave birth to the State of Israel!”
Dr. Saeb Shaath is a writer, thinker and public speaker on Middle Eastern affairs, and a former diplomat
For the ones hat choose to stay in Palestine or have no other options to leave, life in Palestine is double jeopardy, resisting the occupation inside Palestine is painful, dramatic and sometimes deadly.
The Palestinians that have got out of Palestine on Student Visas or other type of Visa and they have expired them, or simply they got to another country illegally they still face many obstacles that the host countries place on them, their stateless situation make them target of the draconian Immigration Laws that many countries have adopted in the last 15 years, thousand of Palestinians are in Immigration detention facilities around the world, when their Visa expired and their Passport expired they lost their ability to travel, some of them being in infinite detention until their status change, if they have any family or friend that pay for lawyer they have a slim chance to leave those detention camps but for many their only hope is that Palestine Become a state so they can return.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle.
May soon all of our brother Palestinians enjoy of freedom of movement and freedom to chose their own destiny as a Free Nation.
Gaza and West Bank As One Nation. Viva Free Palestine.
-Mubarak Stepped Down from Powerمبارك يتنحى عن السلطة بعد طول انتظار
مبارك يتنحى عن السلطة بعد طول انتظار
قرر الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك تنحيه عن السلطة والاستقالة، مساء الجمعة الموافق 11 شباط من العام 2011.
وقال عمر سليمان في بيان صحفي مقتضب عبر التلفزيون المصري :” قرر الرئيس مبارك تخليه عن منصب رئيس الجمهورية وكلف المجلس الاعلى للقوات المسلحة بادارة شؤون البلاد”.
وقد عمت الافراح ملايين المتظاهرين في انجاء مصر بعد 18 يوما من المظاهرات المليونية التي طالبت بتنحي الرئيس ورحيله.
سويسرا تجمد اصولا محتملة لحسني مبارك
قال متحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية السويسرية ان سويسرا جمدت اصولا من المحتمل انها مملوكة لحسني مبارك الذي تنحى عن منصب رئيس الجمهورية hgيوم الجمعة بعد ان حكم مصر 30 عاما.
وقال المتحدث لارس نوتشيل كما نشرت رويترز “يمكنني ان اؤكد ان سويسرا جمدت اصول الرئيس المصري السابق بأثر فوري.” وامتنع عن تحديد حجم الاموال التي يشملها التجميد.
اقالة الحكومة ومجلس الشعب والشورى
وقالت وكالة رويترز ان وزير الدفاع المصري المسير محمد حسين طناطوي يترأس المجلس الاعلى للقوات المسلحة.
وقال تلفزيون العربية ان المجلس الاعلى للقوات المسلحة سيقيل الحكومة ويحل مجلسي الشعب والشورى وان رئيس المحكمة الدستورية العليا سيشارك في حكم البلاد.
ومن المتوقع أن يصدر الجيش بيانا في وقت لاحق يوم الجمعة عقب تنحي الرئيس حسني مبارك بعدما قضى 30 عاما في السلطة>
البورصة والذهب
سجلت بورصة وول ستريت ارتفاعا اليوم الجمعة، (بعد خسائر لدى جلسة الافتتاح)، إثر إعلان الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك استقالته، على ما أفادت به وكالة الأنباء الفرنسية.
وتخلت أسعار الذهب عن خسائرها في اعقاب انباء تنحي الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك عن منصبه وصعدت في اواخر التعاملات يوم الجمعة لتسجل في نهاية جلسة التداول في لندن 1365.90 دولار ( الاونصة) مقارنة مع 1362.90 دولار في الاغلاق السابق في سوق نيويورك.
صعدت الاسهم الاوروبية في اواخر جلسة التعاملات يوم الجمعة في اعقاب ثلاث جلسات متتالية من الخسائر مدعومة بأنباء تنحي الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك.
هبطت العقود الاجلة للنفط الامريكي الى أدنى مستوى لها في 10 أسابيع يوم الجمعة بفعل موجة مبيعات اثارتها انباء تنحي الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك أدت الى انحسار المخاوف من عرقلة امدادات الخام من الشرق الاوسط.
كما وانخفضت تكلفة التأمين على الدين السيادي المصري من العجز عن السداد أو اعادة الهيكلة لمدة خمس سنوات بمقدار 25 نقطة اساس بعد اعلان نائب الرئيس المصري في التلفزيون الحكومي يوم الجمعة ان الرئيس حسني مبارك قرر التنحي عن منصبه.
مرسلة بواسطة omar gaza palestine في 02:03 ص 0 التعليقات
إرسال بالبريد الإلكتروني كتابة مدونة حول هذه المشاركة. المشاركة في Twitter المشاركة في Facebook المشاركة في نبضات Google
الصفحة الرئيسية
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المتابعون
The Sleeping Giant Has Awaken-We The People
Chronicles of a Revolution
Is Gaza being strangled by the Egyptian Revolution?
Posted by Marivel Guzman
On February 1, 2011
Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia Road to Freedom
The situation might be blurry and confused for the foreigners, the spectators of this chain of events that started on December 27, 2010 with a person in the main square of the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire and sparked a revolution, The Jasmine Revolution that ousted another Dictator.
Tunisia has asked Interpol to help arrest ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of the family who fled the country during an uprising, the justice minister said Wednesday.
Lazhar Karoui Chebbi told a news conference that Tunisia wanted to try Ben Ali and his clan for “possessing of (expropriated) property and transferring foreign currency abroad,” Reuters reported.
The spark the set Egyptians in an unexpected uprising that culminated with the Revolution that wants Hosni Mubarak out of the Chair, have kept The Western, Israel and Gaza Government afraid of any moves that can spark more unrest in the Palestinians Territories. With the Egyptian Revolution getting momentum in the Streets of Egypt and else where in the world, the uncertainly of the outcome have forced the Egyptian Military to seal the border of Rafah the only official open border to Gaza, Palestine, and The Authorities in Gaza afraid of the influx of Egyptian Refugees that try to cross to Gaza in the last days, have forced them to seal also the Tunnels, the lifeline of Gaza for the last 3 years after Israel imposed the Siege.
Sources in Gaza confirmed that the Erez Crossing that connect Israel with Gaza is being completely sealed since yesterday, the excuses always come handy for Israel to block the entrance of goods to Gaza.
People are required to put all their luggage on a metal detector, which funnels the baggage to unseen security guards for possible hand checks. Travelers then are buzzed through a glass door and enter the crossing’s most sophisticated security check: an advanced body screener created by a California company.
– Scanning equipment built by L-3 Communications Inc.
– Cost more than $35 million to construct
The crossing is largely unused as Israel prohibits the vast majority of Gazans from coming out, and almost no one from Israel goes in. These days, many simply call the high-tech crossing point the “terminal to nowhere”
People are required to put all their luggage on a metal detector, which funnels the baggage to unseen security guards for possible hand checks.
Travelers then are buzzed through a glass door and enter the crossing’s most sophisticated security check: an advanced body screener created by a California company.
The scanner is so sensitive, officials say, that it creates a complete holographic image of the traveler and allows the screener to see even a tissue or penny stuck in a pocket.
Travelers step into the scanner through a plastic portal and raise their hands above their heads. The translucent plastic doors close and a scanner whizzes around them in a complete circle.
The scanner’s manufacturer, L-3 Communications Inc.
With the unrest in the region Israel seal the Erez crossing, making with this the situation in Gaza unbearable. For the last 3 years the booming of the tunnels have relieved the population of Gaza, as most of the food and products were imported by the tunnels operators that control both sides of the border.
The Gaza Tunnels have served as a life line for the besieged population of Gaza
The situation in Gaza is deplorable in all the senses, politically, economically and if the situation does not change for the better the Revolution of Egypt can be easily imported to Gaza, and for that they do not need the tunnels.
The people is tired of waiting from the West to do anything to make Israel to lift the blockade, they are tired to wait from their own government to implement an emergency measures to alleviate their lack of food, the absent of jobs and the insecurity in the Strip.
Something has to be done in the next few days. Gazans are impatient also and they might want to unite their voices to the general struggles and protests that have swept the world in the last 4 weeks.
Let’s hope for the good of the people that Mubarak sees his time over and move out of the way so the change can start taking place and Gaza siege be lifted once and for all.
The people have spoken “When people speak, despots, dictators, tyrants should shut up, or pack up and leave” Hamza El Alami said in one of his comments posted in facebook, the social network that have served as a meeting forum for social and peace activist of the world.
Hamza El Alami said “the US has not called on Mubarak to resign, and if they can control events in the M.E. as it used to, they will not hesitate to act and defend the SOB Mubarak. The people in Egypt has spoken, and so the rest of the oppressed people …in the Arab world; one by one they will rise against tyranny. American policy makers are not for democracy; the US rejected the Palestinian election’s results, and decided along with Israel and Mubarak to starve and strangulate 1.5 million people in Gaza. The US is for Israel and its racist policy, dictators, corrupt rulers and not democracy, at least not for Arabs. America has to face a new reality and reassess its policy that must be based on justice and not the support of ruthless dictators.”
Mubarak falling in pieces, as the days pass and Egypt unrest grows, no words from Obama or Old Crazy Joe Biden can stop the will of the people from shaking the dictator from their country
In the past people in the US has revolved against policies, Domestic and Foreign, but never before since the civil war, the government has seen something like what is happening in Egypt, or what just developed in Tunisia, they are analyzing and tasting the intelligent and resolve of the people of the US.
They know that we are not silence any more, they can not risk to enrage 10 millions or 20 or 30 million people, not even imagine 100 millions of Americans in the streets of the US protesting, injustice in the courts, discrimination in the Tax System, Wages under the living standards of decency, Under Funded Education, Draconian Laws enacted by Bush and Company, Contaminated Food, Health Care unacceptable, really the government of the US is not ready to confront 100 million people claiming for equality and justice.
The white house is worry of the wave of dissent around the world is rolling down as an avalanche, a ball of protests growing every moment and they refused to speak the right words, “Mubarak Reign of Terror has to Stop, once and for all”.
I THINK WE ARE SEEING THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE, The emperor is Naked and refuse to recognized it.
When the people finally speak the leaders shut up and Lead, that will be the lessons that every leader have to learn if they want to hold to the Chair a little longer.
It is a cheaper solution for the government to sacrifice a few dictators and one Terrorist State and live comfortable for another 10 or 20 years, enough time for the people of the world to completely wake up and smell the coffee.
Gaza, Palestine
While all the unrest is growing in the world, Gaza is waiting for the world to speak for them, to help them to Tear the Walls down.
Revolution is at their Gates and is tempting, the blood is already boiling, the rage is in every mind, the RESISTANCE is standing stronger every day, there short time to lose. Every Citizen of the world STAND for Peace, Demand your leaders to fight for Peace and Justice for all.
Free the World, Stand for your Rights, Raise your Voice. We own it to us, if you want to stay free, you have to fight for it.
Human Trafficking: Ancient Trade!
Posted by Marivel Guzman
Human Trafficking is not new to our society, since ancient times humans have been victims of other humans
the oldest accounts of human trafficking goes back in history way back that is not on records, but we can account for stories in the Bible that is more than 4000 years old. Slavery the worse case of human trafficking.
In modern history we found others types of human trafficking, we have seen terrible cases of humans being used to transport drugs across borders, the disappearance of hundreds of people that have been use to transport drugs in their bodies.
Prostitution is one of the favorite for International Organizations, Russia and Israel being recently and more commonly involved in this traffic of persons to be use as sex slaves, including children as young as 6.
Human Trafficking is common in Africa, humans are used as a work slaves for the plantations of Cocoa. They pray in children from small villages from poor African Neighbor Countries. Children as little as 6 have been victims of this trade.
But the more dramatic and unspeakable of the human trafficking is the kidnapping of civilians to killed them and harvest their organs, in some instances the persons seeing themselves deep in misery and unable to support their families have resorted to sell voluntary their own organs.
But the most common practice and criminal of all is the murder of healthy person to steal their organs
Munir, the poet of love
Marivel Guzman: Munir, the poet of love
Posted on April 29, 2010 by salqincity
Marivel Guzman: Munir, the poet of love
اليوم،
الساعة 07:04 مساءً
Munir…The Poet of Love
What will be of the beloved
Is your inspiration did not write it
What will be of the Love!
If your pen did not inspired it.
Munir the poet…have written
The words of love, on a paper
The Love for the word..with the pen
The love for love of the word
Munir the poet…have found
The Meaning of Inspiration
The meaning of the Word
The meaning of Love
So simple for the poet
To write down his mind
to express with melancholy
The language of love
Munir The poet of Love
inspires the word
To inspire poetry
To inspire the pen
To Write More
**************************************************
Munir…El Poeta del Amor
Traducida Por Marivel Guzman
Que seria del amado
Si tu inspiracion no lo escribiera
Que seria del Amor
Si tu pluma no lo inspirara
Munir El Poeta ha escrito
Las palabras de amor en papel
El Amor por la palabra…con la pluma
El Amor, por Amor a la Palabra
Munir..El Poeta, ha encontrado
El significado de la inspiratcion
El significado de la Palabra
El significado del Amor
Muy simple para el Poeta
Exteriorizar su mente afuera
Y expressar con melancolia
El lenguaje del Amor
Munir, El Poeta del Amor
Inspira la palabra
Para Inspirar la poesia
Para Inspirar la pluma
Para que mas escriba
*******************************************************
Munir … il poeta dell’amore
Traducción:Mario Rigli
Cosa sarà dell’amata
Se non ne scrive la tua ispirazione?
Cosa ne sarà dell’Amore!
Se non lo ispira la tua penna?
Munir il poeta ..ha scritto
Parole d’amore, su carta
Con la penna… amore per le parole
Amore per l’amore della parola
Munir il poeta … ha trovato
Il senso dell’ispirazione
Il significato della Parola
Ciò che significa Amore
Semplice per il poeta
Da scrivere per la sua mente aperta
Con malinconia da esprimere
Il linguaggio dell’amore
Munir il poeta dell’amore
Ispira la parola
Nell’ispirare la poesia
Nell’ispirare la penna
A scrivere ancora.
Support our Palestinian Brother, the Poet Munir Mezyed
Dear Susan Life is Not Fair
Posted in November 15, 2010 by Marivel Guzman
Dear Susan life is not fair, and has not been less unfair for Palestinians since the Zionist Movement started at the beginning of the century.
The situation in Gaza is deplorable worse than in the West Bank, and we know that everything that we people of the world wanted to happen for the good of Peace in the world, will only going to be possible if WE THE PEOPLE take the initiative and the lead in our world affairs.
Gaza Siege
The time has come when we must move the strings of power by the only way that is possible, Economic boycott of the diverse industries that finance Israel development and growth.
Hollywood Movie Industry, Knows for their support to Israel and their continuous subliminal messages against Palestine Rights to Resist the Occupation, Christian Non Profit Organizations, givers of astronomical donations to finance illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem, and every product that it is in the BDS list that give economical life to the Zionist Entity Israel.
The most important is keeping the pressure to our leaders in the US to stop the economic help to Israel. And to stop being the spoiler in the United Nations resolutions against Israel war crimes and pressure Israel to comply with the more of 350 resolutions put in place by this body.
Israel of 2009 is a spoiled country, arrogant and condescending, convinced that it deserves everything and that it has the power to make a fool of America and the world.
Raising awareness in our children about the prospects for peace in the world, educating them about the evil enterprise that is the War Complex Machine and their multi-billion dollars money deals they make with Israel.
Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; 'shrunken' corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive internal wounds with no trace of shrapnel, corpses blackened but not burnt, and others heavily wounded that did not bleed
The only way we will make our governments stop acting with impunity is showing them that we are united, that we are a uni-voice, a strong force growing every day, that we can not stay silence with the crimes they perpetrate and silently cover up, that we are awake and aware of the situation in Palestine, and elsewhere in the world.
That Israel is an entity that needs to disappear from the face of the Earth, because is causing great threat to World Peace, and was founded under false pretenses, deception, lies and deceit. And since the creation of this entity, the world has been in a constant battle to support it, against the will of the population of the government that finance her.
There is no secret any more that the Nazi regime so much vilified by the founders of Israel were in concord agreement with the Nazis to transfer as many Jews and their properties to Palestine. We know more about the deception played to world to created Israel. They did not stop at murder to cover up their lies in their way to the creation of Israel.
We have sons and daughters, they are our future educated them.
World peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or peoples. World peace is a Utopian idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. Although the term is sometimes used to refer to a cessation of all hostility among all individuals, world peace more commonly refers to a permanent end to global and regional wars with future conflicts resolved through nonviolent means.
We have sons and daughters, they are our future educated them on the issue of Peace. Educate them on the horrors of war and their profiteers and financiers.
Israel is the biggest arm dealer in the world. And she profits every time there is a death somewhere in the world. BE WAR OR just a random shoot out.
Facebook is just one outlet to spread the truth, they are hundreds of this socials networks that we can use to change our world.
We can not just complain that nothing is happening, because is happening.
We are a force growing. Do not let us be just few raising our voices.
Be a peace activist too, reading is good because you are getting informed, then do your part, share the posts to other walls, export them to others blogs, others channels, other spaces.
Myspace, youtube,meta cafe,tweeter,digg this,blogerspot,wordpress.com. I can search the net and find maybe thousands of this social networks.
Soon the change will become our reality. Do not be discouraged by the tragic events, we all take lessons and must move on, we must make changes to our advantage, and ACT in our behalf, in the name of a brighter future, that for some parts of the world is just Future a temporary word.
They live in the situation of “Be Or Not To Be” where the fight for their life is an everyday affair.
We ALL are thinkers and able to share our concerns and give ideas of how to do better. How to participate in our political process and our world affairs.
Do not let no one dictate you what is good for you, if what you are witnessing is injustice and struggle and does not feel good for you, probably is not good for anybody else.
We can not move on as a society if we permit this tragic events pass in front of our News, and Television Sets and think and pretend that will never happen to us.
We can not move on as a society if we stay indifferent to the pain of other human beings, and look the other way pretending everything is right and there is nothing to change.
If There got to be Freedom in any society, Justice must be the base of the same. Human Rights is an inalienable right of every human being, being Gaza, US, Germany, Lebanon, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba(should not exist),Cuba, China, Iran, Mexico, Congo, Russia..or any place on Earth that humans co-habit under any authority of any type.
Take your future in your hands. If you do not do it, others will do for you.
Then you will have no face to complain or time to ACT.
ACT NOW for your future and for the change you want to see.
ACT NOW for betterment of our society.
STATEMENT FROM HOSTAGES ON BOARD STROPHADES IV…URGENT
Posted by Marivel Guzman
HOSTAGES ON BOARD STROPHADES IV…GREEK SHIP..
We have been kidnapped at the Libyan port of Derna, by the Captain and crew of the Straphades IV. The Captain and crew have since left and the Greek authorities are now holding us hostage on board the Strophades IV.Ten of us are being held …at gunpoint by a… Greek SWAT team, in a small room 8x8ft. We have been told if we move we will be shot. We have requested sleeping facilities, showering facilities, access to telephones/internet and consular assistance – all have been denied. In the last 48 hours we have had one tin of coke and one sandwich to eat. We have had no access to water other than that in the toilets. We have to ask permission to do anything, including using toilets. We have no status. We do not know the nature of the charges we are being held under and feel extremely vulnerable. We ask that everyone please put pressure on the Greek government and demand that they end this nightmare. We want the Greek authorities to release us and allow us safe passage to Libya, where we can join the remaining members of the Road to hope convoy and proceed with humanitarian aid to Palestine.
Message ends…..
ARE THE MASTERS of deceit playing with our intelligence? this is atrocious .ridiculous and non sense act of piracy.theatery and blatant abuse of power.What the people is waiting to yell your outrage.
Yesterday when finally few outlets News picked up the SOS from the hostages and the attention was in the hijacked ship, Israel f16 were bombarding Gaza and terrorizin the children with sonar bombs. Off course Zio-terrorist Israel and her puppets are behind this distracting tactical event.
The situation created by this twist of events with the Internationals peace activists was clearly planned and calculated by Israel Egypt Uk to disrupt the land convoys and knowing that all the activists are exhausted.
We only can do so much from our stand as International peace activists. Sharing the News raising awareness to the world, we must brake this block of indifference and impunity that keep us lethargic and divided, and showing to our governments that we are united and not be deterred by gimmicks.
Do not let them distract you, keep the pressure. Write to the diverse embassies of the governments involved in this outrageous incident, demonstrate in front of the embassies.
The activists Stranded in the Libyan/Egyptian border need our help.
Raise money to send them to finish the mission to deliver the humanitarian aid to Gaza…Thanks.
Akashma Online News 
